Madness

The month of March represents an in-between time on the sports calendar. 

In the US both NFL and college football have finished. College basketball is preparing for March Madness which will be followed by the NBA playoffs starting April 19. The NHL is also approaching the pointy end of the season with their playoffs commencing in mid-April and their trading deadline arriving today.

In the meantime... Baseball spring training has begun. In a nice segue the first pitch of the new season will take place in Sydney, Australia on March 22.

In other Australian news the Aussies have just completed a clean sweep of England and South Africa in this summer's Test matches. As the cricket winds up the preseason of Aussie Rules Football is already completed and the season proper kicks off in just over a week. Not to mention soccer and rugby...

March features the merging of the seasons: sports and weather. While it becomes a crazy time of playoffs and season launches, there's also a lull for a moment at the beginning of the month. Although anticipation builds during the first couple of weeks, the end of football in January and February provides a time to catch one's breath. It gives us a chance to catch up on chores and to return to Sunday naps.

As I contemplate the change of seasons and trade my Colts jersey and my bright gold Australian shirt for my Carlton guernsey and Cardinals tees I'm reminded that God built seasons into our lives.

As much of the christian world observes a season of Lent, I wonder what season we have built into our life that point us to God? I've just been through a busy couple of months where I've had to work on my day off more often than not. I'm looking forward to a season of quiet where I can return to spending time with my family.

In sports, sometimes as fans we forget that each sport has an off season as we switch rapidly from one to the other. While Christians shouldn't ever turn our faith off, we need to give ourselves an "off season" from time to time that enables us to refresh our faith and re-energise our service to God. In Bible terms we call this "Sabbath".  (I've also written HERE on the topic of Sabbath.)

Does your life have an off season?  What's it look like? Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

¹ For everything that happens in life—there is a season, a right time for everything under heaven:

²     A time to be born, a time to die;
        a time to plant, a time to collect the harvest;
³     A time to kill, a time to heal;
        a time to tear down, a time to build up;
⁴     A time to cry, a time to laugh;
        a time to mourn, a time to dance;
⁵     A time to scatter stones, a time to pile them up;
        a time for a warm embrace, a time for keeping your distance;
⁶     A time to search, a time to give up as lost;
        a time to keep, a time to throw out;
⁷     A time to tear apart, a time to bind together;
        a time to be quiet, a time to speak up;
⁸     A time to love, a time to hate;
        a time to go to war, a time to make peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8