Spring Sunlight

March 3. 2025

There is nothing quite like that first day of sun after a cold and dreary February. Skies and moods shift from cloudy and gray to bright and cheery. As sunshine creeps through the window, you get the urge to get out of bed, to take advantage of the day, to do a good spring cleaning, to get outside. There’s never been a summer day that brings as much light and hope as the first spring-like day of the year.

I’ve been thinking so much about how important light is, especially in the bleak of midwinter, for a few reasons:

1.      Isn’t everyone a little seasonally depressed in February?

2.      So many people I know are going through it… breakups and diagnoses and even losing loved ones. My heart hurts for them.

3.      Have you seen the news lately? Times are dark!

So here is how I try to respond to these things:

1.      Turn on the light

2.      Be a light

3.      Look for light

Turn on the Light

Last year, I wrote a post called Running Shoes about how a friend of mine told me to choose my hard (ie. it’s hard to be motivated, but it’s also hard to beat yourself up while you sit and do nothing all day). This year, my friends and I have been really trying our best to flip the switch and choose our hard. Where in past semesters we’d get home from class and go lay in bed all day, this semester we are really trying to get up and go. We go on runs together, we go climbing, we play Just Dance, we play cards, we go to karaoke, we have study dates. We’ve been really doing our best to bring out our inner child and just have fun every day. And you know what? It’s not hard to get out of bed anymore. We turned a dull February into the time of our lives!!

Be a Light

When friends and neighbors are going through tough times, we get to find new ways to love and encourage them. Whether we sit with them in silence, or join them in shedding tears, or cheer them on, or whatever else we can do to cheer them up, we get to be a light.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God… (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

Look for Light

Sometimes it’s too hard to turn on a light. Sometimes it’s hard to be a light. Sometimes it's even hard to see a light! But the light is never fully out. There is always light; there is always hope. “It’s always darkest before the dawn” as they say. So even when things seem dark, cling to what is good!

Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

Soak up the sun and let your light shine!