Frozen In Time

 As I'm walking around a local lake, fall hanging cooly in the air, surrounded by a natural cathedral of trees in all majestic shades of golden color, I notice a sign to educate the public on this area's natural habitat. It talked specifically about the wood frog and its ability to freeze all Winter... and never die. How it literally gets frozen alive, only to thaw and become "resurrected" come the springtime. 

And not only does this creature have such a capability - thousands of insect larvae freeze and thaw, and so do young painted turtles. Tartigrades also dehydrate completely and revive themselves once the long, cold wait of Winter is over and Spring's warmth has made them come back to life. As temps are dropping in the fall, these animals hunker down and allow the cold to slowly creep into their bodies until they are nearly lifeless - heart, body, and all. This is how they cope and continue on. They don't fight the Winter's onset - they lean into it. They adapt to it. 

Suddenly, I'm realizing a powerful metaphor here for the human race when it comes to embracing seasons of winter in our own lives. There's a reason our Savior told us to go observe the natural world in order to understand life in the Kingdom (Proverbs 6:6-8). The world He made gives us countless examples of how He designed things to operate, and we do well when we take the time to slow and notice them. Here, we see a couple principles at work that have the ability to reshape how we look at seasons of hardship: 

First, just like winter, suffering is inevitable. As regular as the four seasonal cycles, the ebbs and flows of prosperity and difficulty rise and fall in our lives. Some days, some years are happy and full and abundant and others are cold and dying and bleak. We have little to no control over when and how these will hit us or the degree of their impact, but we can count on the fact that they will come. We cannot escape them. This ought to adjust our expectations when it comes to going through adversity. A book title I recently saw noted that "hard doesn't mean bad." Just because things are difficult doesn't necessarily indicate that this season is altogether terrible and unfair. 

Second, we can either adjust to the hard seasons or face the reality that they may prove the end of us. If the suffering is inescapable and there is no out-running it, then we are given the choice on whether to adapt to its harshness, hunker down and bear the cold, or succumb to it fatally and finally. There is really no in-between. Amazingly, scientific studies have shown that the human body, when under extreme duress and trauma, actually responds to situations very similarly to the wood frog and its little friends: God designed our bodies to go into a kind of shut-down mode that maintains only the essential functions of the body when undergoing deep stress or anguish. Parts of the brain actually slow down and go into an off-line function so that the body can channel its resources and focus all its attention on the absolute necessary operations. This protects us and conserves our emotional, physical, and mental energy so that we can survive. 

Professor Kenneth Storey, who studies freeze tolerance and teaches biochemistry in Ottawa, Canada, has noted that "the reason you freeze is to extend your range farther north or higher in elevation like the top of a mountain... You can get a better niche in the world if you can freeze." 

So what if this idea of adaptation is essential for the coping and surviving of our winter seasons in life? What if it's possible that one can't extend their range of living and growing or even fully discover their purpose unless they know how to endure the cold and the dark? 

Gazing out across the lake, I'm left wondering if some of us out there who have undergone seemingly never-ending winters upon winters have remained frozen in time. Perhaps it's equally possible to never let your heart thaw out or ever feel the Spring again. Even as the seasons revolve and the years tick on by and life moves forward, maybe some people never do. They choose to stay stuck and never allow themselves to feel love or joy or meaning ever again. They lose elevation in their life. They lose out on that "niche" the professor referred to. All because they became numb to life and its abundance. The pain killed their spirit. 

I'm seeing it now that just our choice to lean into the chill and let the freeze do its work is determinative to our potential wholeness, so too our choice to remain frozen or to warm with the Spring and move forward is just as important, if not more so. If we can't give ourselves grace to shutdown and grieve and ache in the natural way yet also not motivate ourselves once Winter has passed to get up and get going again, even the slightest bit, then we will not come out the other side of our suffering better people. 

This reminder inspires me because I realize that, for myself, there have been far too many times when I was tempted to just stay hard - to distance myself from God and life and people and determine that the possible for thaw and healing and wellness was just too slim. Suffering can do that to you - it can skew your perception and change your thinking and cause you to believe all kinds of untruths. It can mess with you and lead you to conclude countless falsehoods... unless you counter it with hope. Unless you trust the process and keep having faith that the Spring is coming someday, the Winter will render you lifeless. 

God has given you what you need to survive these frozen seasons. This is a fact. His grace is sufficient for today's trouble, and His presence will never leave you alone. In His Word and through the little miracles and acts of kindness along the way, He lets you know that this doesn't have to be the end of you. This can be the beginning of a new you... a you that's stronger, braver, wiser, and gentler. A you that's been forged in the toughest of conditions and has survived. This Winter you're facing doesn't need to have the last word... unless you let it. 

Perhaps you recall having been in that place yourself, or maybe you know someone else who is. Maybe you're there right now. I know the frost and the snow and the icy-cold are penetrating and it feels like you're never going to come alive ever again. I know it seems like you've grown numb to a point where it will be impossible to thaw and heal after this. I get that this season is harsh and you doubt if you have what it takes to come through it, let alone be a better you. 

But may I just suggest that perhaps a perspective shift is necessary here? Even though the feelings of where you're at are powerful, they are likely not factual. And you have the choice as to how you're where you're going to end up: will you thaw come the Springtime and decide to move ahead with hope, or will you stay stuck in the past and the pain and remain frozen in time? God gives you the option but also, He gives you the way forward, should you choose to open yourself up to love and life and hope again. 

I, for one, chose a long time ago that I didn't want my story to be my undoing but my resurrecting. I was willing to let some things in me die in order for new things to come alive. I decided to lean into the season and let Winter run its course. I was okay with sitting with the numbness because I knew it would pass and, as long as I stayed open to Grace, I would one day open again to life and also, to God. 

Not everyone will choose the same. But my prayer is that you take away from this the realization that it is possible.  Life is hard, yes. Sometimes brutally so. But the Spring will come. It always does. Maybe not as quickly as you'd like, but it will arrive when the Winter has done its duty and things warm up again. And with that thawing comes the possibility of becoming more than when the first signs of chill struck your life. This season can simply be a means of transporting you into a more abundant tomorrow, however far away that may seem.