After getting a taste of some beautiful Arizona weather, I decided to become a snowbird — living in the Midwest most of the year and flying south for the winter. Each year, upon returning home, I wondered why I had hurried to get back so soon.
Each year’s sojourn became a little longer until I finally relocated to Arizona as a full-time resident. During those earlier years, when I was in Illinois, I found myself missing my friends and activities in Arizona. When I was in Arizona, I was thinking about Illinois and the people there. I sometimes felt guilty about the double life I was leading.
After contemplating this, I realized I was also a spiritual snowbird. Just as I had felt pulled between my Illinois life and my Arizona life, a tug-of-war was going on in my heart.
Romans 8:5 tells us, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” I really wanted to be spiritually minded, focused on God, but life’s cares and responsibilities kept invading my thoughts. I was double minded, like the man described in James 1:8, who is “unstable in all his ways.”
However, just like my heart was being drawn toward Arizona as I spent more time here, as I began spending more time in the Bible, I noticed myself being drawn more toward spiritual things.
Activities that were so entertaining in the past were losing their appeal. Relationships that seemed so important before became less fulfilling as I drew closer to those with spiritual goals more in line with my own.
The change from winter visitor, to snowbird, to full-time resident didn’t take place overnight. Neither did the transition in my spiritual walk. The change from Midwesterner to Arizona resident took a few years. The spiritual journey will take a lifetime.
Many people navigate smoothly through life as natural snowbirds, going back and forth year after year; but I don’t believe any of us can function well as spiritual snowbirds. We need to become God-focused. As we spend more time in God’s Word, we will become more spiritually minded. Then we’ll find ourselves becoming full-time residents in the “secret place of the Most High.” (Psalm 91:1)
If you would like to hear great teaching that will help you understand God’s Word, come visit us at Charis Christian Church, 4811 E. Julep Street, Mesa, Unit 101