October 3, 2014

[the gospel brought to you by the season of fall]

This is my most favorite season.

How can one not enjoy fall? Sounds like a pretty impossible feat if you ask me. (But you didn't.)

I like the crisp, cool weather. The pumpkin flavored e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. The snuggling. The football. The color of trees when they change colors. Umm hello.. comfort food! The scarves and plaid flannels. The anticipation & joy that comes from the beautiful realization that holidays are quickly approaching - ATTENTION: Coming soon: precious time with loved ones and time off of work.

But most of all, I love the imagery of the gospel that I see in fall.

I was thinking about this yesterday on the way home from work. I was listening to "Nothing I Hold Onto" by United Pursuit while passing by trees that were slowly beginning to change colors. It was good.

I don't know if this is how it is with you, but summer is always a busy time for me. I have learned to [a little bit] strongly dislike it. I just feel like, for some reason, in the summer, everyone - myself included - is constantly on the go during the hours of extended daylight. I don't do "always-on-the-go". Eventually, my introvert self gets tired. I get tired of the hot weather. The sweating profusely problem that I may or may not have.. but mostly I get tired of the busyness.

It seems like as fall rolls around, I am done with continual activity. I am so burnt out of trying to get that overflowing to-do list checked off and being social by signing up for activity after activity to fill my schedule while simultaneously attempting to fill my heart, that I simply can't do it anymore. I am trying and trying so hard to be effective & efficient with my numerous summer activities that it gets me. I give up.

Fall is letting go of those habits that aren't so becoming. Fall is realizing I can't do it on my own and letting go. Slowly, becoming so ravaged with the clutter, that I let it loose.

And in winter, even though it is cold and hard - I let go of my 'control' - and slowly, progressively, I see the white. Slowly, I am becoming clean. I am letting go of trying to do it on my own.

And in the spring, I am made new. I am brought through the busyness and the attempt at controlling my own life, the hard times that make me clean and present me as a new creation - white & blameless. And in the spring, I flourish. Only because of the realization that I can't do it on my own. I am not in control. I am never going to get anywhere by over-cramming & checking off items on my to-do list. It is through the hard winter that I learn more about my Creator, about who He created me to be. It is through the winter that He makes me clean - white as snow. And it is in the spring that I am joyful - that I blossom.. understanding that the only reason I am able to blossom is because of the seasons that brought me here - this season of spring. This season of becoming.

And soon and very soon, I will find myself - again - in the continuous cycle of seasons. I will find myself in busyness, in attempting to do things on my own for the false belief that I am all-knowing or something (um.. I know. Ya right.). And I will then recognize it. And come clean. And bloom.

But the best part of it all - it's not the continual transformation or the different life stages. It's the truth that I am always coming right back to the source of life - Jesus Christ - the fulfiller. The pilot. The controller. The cleaner. And the planter who brings about the fresh blooms. Time and time again.