Lots of things experience dormancy. Many species of plants for example. Look out your window at the deciduous trees (the ones that have lost their leaves for the winter). They are dormant. Many animals also experience dormancy, and it comes in a variety of forms. Hibernation is a sort of dormancy. Dormancy means that an organism stops growing, stops developing and largely ceases activity. Dormancy results when adverse conditions occur and a plant or an animal recognizes that to survive, it must cease normal “life” and put the brakes on growth, development, and activity. Dormancy comes in a couple of ways. Predictive dormancy happens when the length of days shortens, temperatures lower or water is limited. The organism reacts to signs like these and goes dormant prior to adverse conditions. Consequential dormancy happens after the fact. After unpredictable environmental conditions worsen, the plant or animal reacts by going dormant.

Dormancy happens to people too. It even happens to Christians. Think back to this time last year. You were growing in God’s Word (Ephesians 4:13-16), developing your thinking and behavior to mirror the qualities listed in Galatians 5:22-23 and 2 Peter 1:5-8, and you were actively sharing God’s word through your words and actions (Titus 2:7-8). Then a sort of consequential dormancy occurred, starting in the spring of 2020. Our unpredictable environment did what it is prone to do, and was, well, unpredictable. Dormancy has its place. For a period of time, it allows us to protect ourselves and limit damage that might come from adverse environmental conditions. But here’s the thing…dormancy has to come to an end. Ideally, the plant or animal comes out of dormancy in a position to THRIVE!

This is the question I suppose. Are we ready to exit a dormant state and thrive in this new year? Maybe our willingness to stop being dormant is a result of taking a new perspective on the environmental conditions around us. If we stop focusing exclusively on our worldly environment and consider that our spiritual environment is incredibly stable and predictable, we might feel better about making changes that allow us to thrive.

Remember these things. God is still God (Isaiah 45:1-7). God is still on His throne, he loves us and he continues to be in control of this world (Isaiah 55:8-9). The sacrifice of Christ still stands (Hebrews 10:1-18), and as a result we have an expectant hope of one day finding ourselves in the environment of heaven. It’s time to thrive…

Dean Murphy