Last year, I remember helping someone with a workbook page about converting temperatures across the different temperature scales: Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Kelvin. Where I’m from, we always use Fahrenheit. The only times Celsius and Kelvin are useful are in academic classes.

I knew enough to sense that the workbook was misleading when it listed temperatures in degrees Kelvin. WHAT!??? There’s no such thing. That’s a big mistake. I had to say (somewhat along these lines), “Draw an X over it… CROSS THAT OUT. What in the world is this? They’re supposed to be saying Kelvin, not degrees Kelvin.”

It’s the absolute scale… but I can’t be absolutely right all the time, so maybe “degrees Kelvin” is an acceptable term. It wasn’t to me because I was going by the exact rules I had learned before, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that sticking to a certain set of naming conventions like that and worrying about little differences like that could be a waste of time.

To my limited knowledge, I thought that degrees Kelvin do not necessarily exist… unless enough people claim they do and we get that in our colloquial language. I mean, I’m careless enough to ask people, in this phrasing, “What’s the degrees outside?” (But of course, I’m going to get an answer in Fahrenheit, not in Kelvin.) The point is, though, get the temperature scales, right, because Kelvin deserves some respect. Why?

Well, it all comes down to one word, “heat.” Heat… the Kelvin scale is there to help us see how “hot” or “cold” it is, in an absolute way that doesn’t require using negative numbers (it’s a scalar, not a vector, and it starts at absolute zero).

I remember the moment in elementary school when I was taught about “cold.” I was told that cold doesn’t exist… as simple as that. Just like degrees Kelvin doesn’t exist in some technical terms, cold doesn’t either. Cold is defined as the absence of heat. Cold is not a presence. The quantity of what we feel hot or not comes from the energy, not from a force of “cold” or “heat.” Cold is just referring to the lack…

If there are actual scientists reading this, I apologize if I just ruined a perfectly good set of naming conventions with this nonsense of a struggling commentary I’m writing. There’s at least one thing that you can agree with me, though: summer ends.

Ben Potter says no in his song, “Endless Summer.” He’s claiming that summer never ends.

The reason I brought this all up… temperature, heat, summer, and cold… is because where I live, there’s a snowstorm coming. In the middle of the wintertime, it’s so refreshing to do the honors of talking about warmth. In the middle of the wintertime, talking about the “Endless Summer” is a phenomenon that we can cling to.

Or we can just cling to depending on God’s grace. That’s probably the same thing, after all. If you look closely at the lyrics in this song, they are all forming a big metaphor that explains how God is Summer.

If you think of all the renewing of the summer, the enjoyment, the opportunity to let go of the cold difficulties, the scorching heat that won’t give us a break (ranging from about 300 to 315 Kelvins)… that’s all a reminder of God and how God protects us and takes care of us. That care and protection isn’t going to be put away for fall, winter, and spring. It’s the constant that keeps us going all year.

In the song, Ben Potter mentions walking the shores with God. That reminds me of the “Footprints in the Sand” poem. Of course, that’s a landmark story that’ll probably be thought of a lot throughout all scenarios in whatever types of songs there are… but hopefully you understand the idea. We’re trying to acknowledge how God is close.

If that isn’t enough to be satisfied, is there another season that means more to you? We worship God through every season… as is apparent in the songs “snow in june” (JSteph’s somewhat of an “endless winter” reference) and “Springtime” from Chris Renzema. There’s also the song, “fallin’” by Armand Mukenge, which I remember listening to during the fall season. It doesn’t seem like an exact fall reference, but if we compare and contrast ourselves to the falling leaves, you might think of some similarities.

These messages tell us something different… we don’t need summer exclusively to be happy. And we don’t need a year-round tropical paradise either. We can live in another season because God can bless us in that way too. Or, at least, we can see how God works with the concepts of the winter, spring, and summer as well. There is beauty in every season, not just in the summer.

When I had the idea for a subtitle for the Project, I thought that “For the Seasons” would be a cool catchphrase. The idea of seasons coming and changing is big, not just in the weather, but also in how we think about our lives. We have seasons of joy, seasons of sorrow, seasons of challenges, and seasons of accomplishments. We have seasons and times where we have to leave significant things behind and go on expecting for a brighter future. We have seasons where we need to adjust to positive or negative changes. We have seasons of fullness and seasons of emptiness. We have seasons where we are strong in faith and others where we need a boost because we are struggling in our beliefs.

Two of my favorite songs are “Spring Theory” from PEABOD and “Weatherboy” from Matthew Parker. Both of these songs are about the intensity of seasons, growth in nature, and how the metaphor of weather helps us so much better understand our life journeys.

When I make music playlists and think about songs, I also think in seasons. When I hear a song, I remember the season in which it was popular or when I first heard it. I see a song like “Help Is On The Way” from TobyMac and know that it was Spring and Summer 2021. I see a song like “The Goodness” from TobyMac and know that it was Summer 2022. I see a song like “Cornerstone” from TobyMac and know that it was Spring and Summer 2023. I see a song like “Nothin’ Sweeter” from TobyMac and know that it was Summer 2024. I see a song like “Miracles” from Colton Dixon and know that it was Spring and Summer 2020. I see a song like “Made to Fly” from Colton Dixon and know that it was Summer 2021. I see a song like “Build A Boat” from Colton Dixon and know that it was Summer 2022. I see a song like “My Light” from Colton Dixon and know that it was Summer 2023. I see a song like “Up + Up” from Colton Dixon and know that it was Summer 2024. (And I know that TobyMac and Colton Dixon always have a song trending every summertime.)

The music, in general, is here to help us get through every season. It’s for worshipping and staying encouraged through all seasons, the good and the bad ones.

I make series of playlists in terms of seasons. I play the songs as featured for a particular season, and when the new season comes, I reset and find a new batch of songs. Then, by the end of the year, I go back through all of it and I finally know which season was which.

As for me right now, I’ll pray to God as the God of Winter, protector from the cold darkness, more beautiful than the prettiest snowflake. And when the springtime and summertime come, I will reflect more on how God shows Himself through those seasons. I’ll also keep my ears listening for new stuff from TobyMac and Colton Dixon… and my eyes on whatever Kelvins or degrees Fahrenheit will present themselves.