And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
—Ephesians 4:23
Today I woke up with a restless feeling pulsing inside. I want to dig in the dirt and make something grow. I want to clean out my closets and paint the bedrooms and chase butterflies. I am full of stirrings and longings born sometime during the night. Every year about this time, it happens to me. Somewhere between the last breath of winter and the first green leaf, I contract “spring fever.”
Suddenly I am struck by a thought. Could spring fever actually be a spiritual phenomenon? Could my hunger to grow a flower, redecorate the house and follow the flight of a newly resurrected butterfly actually be a sign of some deeper need? Could it really be a hunger for my own growth and resurrection?
I begin to hear God speaking to me, showing me how insular, barren and static my spiritual life became through the cold winter. My prayers are frozen like the January ground and my commitment seems unfocused and neglected like a cluttered closet.
So I decide. Yes…I will go and plant seeds in the earth…follow a butterfly…and clean my closets. But I will also take time to cultivate the “spring” burgeoning within my spirit. Beginning now.
Father, there is something wonderful stirring deep within the cocoon in which I have wrapped myself—unfurl new life in me.
