Changing of Seasons

Spring and Summer are my favorite seasons. Sunshine and warmth are valuable commodities, especially in the North. On the calendar, spring started yesterday. 

As I spent the day in northern Kentucky and southern Ohio, I was able to enjoy what I consider a nice Spring day - highs in the 60s, nearly cloudless sky - near perfection.

I'm heading back to Minnesota in the next couple days. The forecast calls for temperatures between 10 and the 20s with wind and the chance of snow. Compared to the bitter cold of this past winter, though, even that screams Spring to me now.

In my 25 years, I've lived in 5 different states, all in the Midwest. The weather in each place, even with being in the same general region, has been completely different. In the same way as no two states have the same weather, no two people have the exact same personality.

We can prepare fairly easily for weather changes. We have boots and flip flops, snow pants and shorts, insulated coats and t-shirts, face masks and sunglasses, stocking caps and shaved heads, and everything in between.

Adjusting to people, however, isn't always that simple. We only have one character, and though we can put on a good surface show for a while, eventually who we are inside will come out.

Sometimes, I think we try so hard to make a good impression that we forget that there's a real person under the mask. When the mask comes off (and believe me, one way or another, it will), we may find that we don't even like what we see.

Is the show worth that heartache? Are we really doing anyone any favors trying to impress them with our facade? I think we ultimately are killing ourselves every time we slip that mask back on. We would all be better off just throwing it away. A mask is only as good as the lies written all over it.

Even in a beautiful Minnesota Summer, I know a cold, snowy winter is on it's way. The climate is what it is, and a changing of seasons isn't a changing of nature, just a part of it. Let's be who we are in every season, and honor God by our honesty, diversity, and unity. Besides, our masks are already transparent to Him.

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