Be prepared to handle the cold!

Hey! We love that you're interested in this, but just a heads up, it's for Southwest Florida.

My girlfriend is from Cape Coral, so she’s not very used to the cold air when it trickles out of the depths of the arctic and down onto the white, sandy shores of Southwest Florida. She’s seen snow only twice in her life. She’s a Floridian through and through, and that means she’s thinking of what’s comfortable pretty much every time she makes the trip to her closet. And why wouldn’t you? It’s Southwest Florida. Flip Flop Boulevard and Tank Top Way.

As you know, the forecast has been pretty chilly lately, at least by Florida’s standards. Too chilly for any sun-kissed Florida native. (If you’re a Florida native, you’re saying to yourself right now, “Dude, chilly? Those morning temperatures have been cold!)

Ah, but has it been cold…really?

See, I’m a midwesterner. Now maybe that explains it, or maybe it doesn’t. All you need to know is…I have more experience with ACTUAL cold. Like, “frostbite for staying outside with your fingers or face exposed for too long” kind of cold. The, “my vehicle won’t start” kind of cold. Some of you reading this right now know exactly what I’m talking about.

And, whether you’ve grown up under a beach umbrella or you’ve shoveled out your car from several feet of snow more than your fair share of times, don’t we all just eventually get comfortable with the weather? Or, at least, we get “used to” it?

(Speaking of shoveling out of the snow, you have to check out this time lapse!)

I can say with certainty that my body has adapted to the warmth of Florida in the two years I’ve lived here, because before, 40s and 50s weren’t really that noticeable. Now, those temperatures seem much colder than they ever did in my 23+ years of living in the middle of the country. My body has become “used to” the 70s, 80s and 90s that invade the Sunshine State with regularity.

Did you catch that? My body has become comfortable.

The thing is…the forecast isn’t going to be 75 and sunny all the time. Whether I like it or not, colder weather is going to come eventually…even in Florida.

Just like the weather, life isn’t always going to be comfortable. The good news is that God gives us everything we need to deal with the “cold” that comes.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

There are two important things to note in these verses: 1) We will have trouble and we will be uncomfortable, and 2) God is our source of comfort, and He wants us to share the good news so others can receive His comfort too.

Just like throwing a blanket over ourselves to get warm, we need to prepare for challenges by wrapping ourselves in God’s comfort and love.

Remember…He has overcome (John 16:33) so we don’t have to. If we’re prepared with God, we’re prepared to handle the cold.

– Zack Wilson

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