falling

The weather this week has been an incredible gift.  So cool and reviving with a breeze that makes you want to stop and take a deep breath and just be. 

 With cool weather comes the arduous task of what I like to call "the changing of the clothes."  It makes me feel like it's more of a thing of royalty instead of what it really is, which is lugging bins of handme down boy clothes from the shed and going through closets to see who is in what size now, and what needs to be taken out and what needs to be added, and so on and so forth, until there are piles of clothes around you that all need to be washed, folded and put away. 

But with the cooler weather and change in calendar also comes one of my favorite things, decorating.  Next to the big plastic tubs of clothing is another one full of all things fall.  Oh how I enjoyed unpacking the box of pumpkins, garlands, leaves, plates and wreaths full of greens, browns, creams and blues (no orange here) and fitting them in new places, gathering items from around the house and combining it all it a different way until it fell into place.  

And then like everything else about my life right now, my mind drifted to another time.

Last year Fall was more of a verb than a season.  Life was all about survival mode and concentrating strictly on the priorities of God and family, with a little time and energy left over for those close friends, but everything else getting almost forgotten.  

I know I'm not alone in this.  There are many times in life where your scope has to get smaller due to all manner of things, from the happy (and exhausting) like welcoming a newborn or a great job that moves you on a new adventure, to the hard, heartbreaking (and exhausting) like losing a loved one, family trials of numerous kinds, or God quite frankly just shaking things up in any part of your life to bring you to Him.

I am constantly reminded that life is not easy nor was it meant to be after sin entered the world.  It is definitely not a wide leisurely walk and it is not even a straight uphill climb.  It is not going to be normal!   There is a reason for the verses that remind us that this life is a fight, its a race, it's a narrow road that is hard much of the time.  AND why there are many more that tell us who to abide in, who to run to and who is more than capable, more than a conqueror

Not I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own.  But one thing I do:  forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3:12-14

I have fought the good fight I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  2 Timothy 4:7

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  

Hebrews 12:1-2

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.  Acts 20:24

Enter by the narrow gate.  For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.  Matthew 7:13-14

Have you not known?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.  He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.  Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

This fall I am feeling the season and we are filling it with all the things we missed out on last year, but taking with me a joy that only comes from knowing what has been done for me.

Deep Breath.