Danger: A thaw is coming.

When do you think the most challenging time of year is in the Alps? Naturally we’d imagine a winter hike would be the most hazardous. The deep snow, the piercing cold winds, falling snow and short days, they form the challenge to beat them all. Or so you’d think.

Having walked throughout the year I find the most dangerous time is actually at the end of winter. The dry ground starts to reappear, and you expect a more relaxed walk. The snow trails you’ve trudged through for months seem friendlier and you drop your guard. In truth they have become a dangerous mixture of ice, deep ruts and unstable snow piles. I have more near falls at this time of year than any other. If you start looking around at the amazing scenery on your walk, you can be sure of a tete à tete with the cold, hard ground. It’s the time of year to watch your step very carefully.

We often think of pressured and stressful moments as the most challenging in our life journeys. The time when you’re up against it and are fighting with every fibre. It’s often the time we cry out ‘please pray for me!’ People gather round, there are anxious waits, we lose sleep, our minds don’t settle and so the list can go on. These moments are the memories that get painfully seared into our souls. Look back over your life for a moment and you’ll find these are the events well etched onto our hardrives. After the dust settles the story changes. As the pressure drops and we start to relax, our friends slap our backs and we all breathe a sigh of relief.

These stress times are often the most character forming moments. They are the times we learn to stand up in life. For me, I learnt that my faith was real and not just a happy theory. Many people have amazing stories that come out of these times. However, there is another test around the corner that we often don’t seem coming.

Pipes burst when the cold temperatures relent and warmer weather comes.

Now comes the time when we need to watch how we walk. The warmer weather of life arrives and stress falls away. Now comes the time it is easy to fall and really get hurt. Many of our moral failures in life don’t come at the pressured times, they come as life quietens down, when you’re on your own. You deserve to relax, don’t you? You deserve a bit of ‘me’ time? You don’t need to concentrate any more, the crisis has passed. It’s no longer time to be responsible. You are tired, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

When I was studying for a pastoral role, I was told to leave a lot of time open towards the end of February. It would be a time, I was told, of depression, family fallouts and general, well, grumpiness. How true it has proved and what good advice it was. The winter had passed but the problems hadn’t, in fact they were growing.

When your winter moments start to end, pay attention to how you’re walking. Your fight is not yet over and there may be more danger than you realise. Watch where you place your feet, watch out for your family, your friends, your own soul.

Your springtime will come when, once again, you can look at the stunning scenery and teaming new life as you walk your journey but it is not yet.