I spent much of the last five years of my life traveling for work. I’m not talking about little road trips, eating fast food at stops off the highway. Most trips included long-haul flights to countries like Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Nepal, or Uruguay, just to name a few.

I’ve since changed jobs, but near the end of that time of traveling, I found myself on a much less exotic trip, visiting small towns in the western half of Wyoming. Driving through the high desert in the winter, dodging herds of elk and antelope in a blizzard...

Needless to say, this trip was different than my usual, but the one constant was late nights in hotels. Even if the rest of the trip was exciting, there was something somewhat soul-numbing about returning to an empty hotel room. I’m married and have three small children, so some parts of this were welcome (the quiet), but in general, returning to an empty hotel room made me acutely aware of my own emptiness.

So when I returned to my hotel room in western Wyoming, after video chatting with my family, I looked out the window, staring at the barren rock ledges outside. And I began to sing, “Awaken my heart to love You.”

You see, no matter how barren and empty the world may feel, it is full of a song of love that is awakening the earth. God’s song of love is saying - “you’re not in the desert, it’s not winter anymore.” The season is changing. Love is dawning on the earth, and the old things are being made new. The mundane and boring are being lit with glorious light. A new chapter is being written, and a new wave of love is crashing over the earth.