In the last 10 days we’ve received more than our yearly average for annual snow fall. This had been a mild winter until winter storm “Juno” blasted in last Monday. Outside in the cold sun, we keep trying to make the walkways and paths clear and safe around our community so that people can get to their cars, offices, and homes safely.  We, and many others in the area, put a great deal of care and effort to protect people physically (with ice melt, sand, boots for better footing etc ), while trying to continue our lives “as normal” (the best we can due to the circumstances).  We have all sorts of methods and tools we use to do this — plows, snowblowers, rock-salt, sand, shovels etc.

But what about our spiritual lives?  Generally I spend much less time trying to protect myself from spiritual forces than I do for a snow storm.  How many methods and tools do I gather, and what plans do I make to protect us from oncoming spiritual storms?  Ephesians reminds us,”For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Maybe in the midst of all the snow clearing, God is reminding me to put more time and energy into fighting the battles that will keep me from slipping on our most important journey, the journey into the spiritual realms.