Seasons

We tend to associate life with seasons. Temperate countries write about the summer of life, about autumn, about winter, about spring. Life is at its peak during summer. Life changes during autumn. Death comes during winter. Revival comes during spring. Well, what about tropical countries? All we get is heat and rain, heat and rain, heat and rain.

Well, Malaysia has haze. There's the super hot season, the mildly hot season, the one-hour-rain-per-day season, and the hazy season. And the season when it's cool enough to wear a jacket at night but not cold enough to be called an actual cold season because the noon sun is as hot as it is any time of the year.

My life in Malaysia can almost be associated with the weather patterns here. Some days (I hope most) I am burning with fire - passion for the Lord, for what I'm doing, and all that. 

Some days I feel hazy. There was a particular season I felt very hazy. I don't take depression lightly. Yet there was a particular year when all I did was cry at night. I'll never really know if I was actually depressed, but those were dark days. Those were even darker nights. I'm past that season, thankfully. I got my life back together. I started my mission to be happy, when I began my quest to enjoy life.

Some days I feel the rain falling down on my heart. I don't think you'll ever get past being homesick. Six years in Malaysia and I still miss home every now and again.

But Malaysia won't leave you cold for long. The heat is on again. And though the rain comes (one blasted hour per day) I'm in that place where I'm nice and warm, all revved up to get things done.

I'm glad I'm in this season. But I won't belittle the others. Each season - the happy ones, the painful ones - they all brought me closer to God.

I think that is what truly matters.

Haze, haze, baby.