God bends His ears just to hear what they say

It's snowing really hard right now. Earlier, i was tired of doing homework, and so i closed the books and just walked outside for a while. You know, i really love snow. i have always just really enjoyed seeing it fall. i don't ski or snowboard or anything on it; i just like to watch it. It brings me peace and it allows me an escape. As i was walking i began to wonder if i would like snow as much if it was always falling? i don't think i would.

Then i began to think, what if i began to look at the hard times in my life in the same way i look at snow? What if i saw in my trials that same cold, hard, vivid beauty of the snow covered mountains around me? As something which makes the beauty of Spring and Summer that much more alive? As an opportunity to deepen my appreciation of the warmth of the unfathomable love of Jesus Christ?

All too often i am just like the people here who complain incessantly about the snow, simply because it makes their morning commute a little messier than normal. Simply because they have to wear ugly boots and wear unfashionable clothes and have messed up hair. i complain about the smallest hardships in my life, refusing to see them as the "light and momentary afflictions" that Paul speaks of. The thing about snow is that i enjoy it because i know that i can run back into my apartment when it gets too cold and windy. And so it is with my life, although i don't often live that way.

The reality is that the world can be bitterly cold at times. It can batter you around with a wind so furious that you lose all sense of direction. It can blind you and leave you feeling numb to everything and everyone around you. But that is why i believe so firmly in the saving grace of Jesus and what He did on the cross for you and i. He said "in this world you will have troubles, but take heart, for I have overcome the world." That is only thing that really gives me a purpose. i pretend all the time that other things fulfill my need for meaning, but when the rubber meets the road, these are just lies i feed to myself. And people say that Christians just use Jesus as a crutch. Well, i have yet to meet a person that didn't need a crutch of some sort. My God is much better than a crutch, though. He is mighty to save.