Call me crazy, but I love snow days.  Something about a reason to have a bit more of a laid back day is so nice every now and again.  Now before I get inundated with the calls about how I just walk across the street to work and all of the other comments from the "sane" people, just hear me out.

I believe there are times all of us need to pause and reflect.  We all need days where we may have a thousand things planned, but God intervenes with a ton of white stuff and says, "slow down today." Even Jesus knew there were times He needed time away and the old KJV says He "came apart" from the crowd.  One old time preacher used to say, "if we don't take time to come apart eventually we will come apart."  I know of some who would say I would rather burn out than rust out.  Howard Hendricks reply to that was that he didn't know those were the only two options. 

We live in a rushed world, with little time for personal meditation and relaxation.  We work all day, have meetings in the evenings or are running the kids to and fro and then we check our e-mails, voice mails and snail mail before we collapse, often times without so much as an "I love you" to either the Lord we love or the spouse we should adore.  So for us that have chosen to live here in the north, we get snow days.  Even though we may have to work, it seems like there is a different environment, a little slower and less stressful, the evenings become free because all of the kids stuff is cancelled and we may even warm up a cup of hot chocolate and curl up with a good book or an old movie.

So after you've cleaned off the car and gotten through the traffic, look at the snow and maybe ask God if it may not be a little reminder to slow down every now and again.  While we may not be able to smell the roses this time of year, warm up a cup of hot chocolate or flavored coffee, inhale the smell of relaxation, meditate on the goodness of our God and maybe even look upward and ask God, "What have I been missing?" His reply might be, "Me."

Because of Him,
Pastor