SJT: Fall's Call

Leigh Anne Eck is hosting Spiritual Journey Thursday this month. 

She asked us to write about change and transformation.

I love fall! I love the feeling of new beginnings that arrives with September and back-to-school supplies. I love watching the leaves on the trees around me change color. I even love the trees when all the leaves are gone and we see their bare bones etched against gray, wintry days. I echo L.M. Mongomery's words from Anne of Green Gables: "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

Grandson Robby started the tradition of snapping memory pics for me when we'd see a tree dressed in autumnal splendor, but couldn't stop to take a picture. It's a treasured tradition with us. We lived near a ravine in Seattle and we loved the windy days when we could watch leaves twirl and swirl to the bottom of the ravine. My daughter coined the word "leaf fall" for those dramatic days.

Yesterday, I found a huge leaf for grandson Ollie who's doing all things leafy this week at preschool. Today, I stood on the pedestrian bridge watching a lone yellow leaf dip and swirl until it landed, floating, on the blue lake. I second the words of Emily Bronte: "Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree."

As I thought about our theme of change and transformation provided by Leigh Anne, I went in search of a verse I recalled that spoke of transformation and found it in Romans 12:1-2 (KJV):

"1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 

 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

I also like this version of these verses offered in The Message, Romans 12:1-2:

"So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

As I face this season of new beginnings and transformation, I want to fix my attention more earnestly on God. I want to recognize what he wants from me and respond to it. I want to let him bring out the best in me. I've begun with a renewed focus on reading scripture. This is a habit that I'm always working on, but mostly ends up being sporadic at best. I started small (at least one verse a day), I attached it to an already existing habit (when I make my bed, then I'll read scripture), and I'm trying to remember to affirm, celebrate, and check in with my accountability partner when I've done it.

I hope you feel renewed and refreshed by this time of year. The cooler weather helps, but I know some of you don't have it yet. I lived in Houston for 11 years and I well remember sweating through October birthday parties (both my children have October birthdays). Perhaps you'll want to join me in focusing on habit formation. I like this quote from Ruth Ahmed: "There is something so special in the early leaves drifting from the trees–as if we are all to be allowed a chance to peel, to refresh, to start again." 

Two favorite pics of fall color: 

WA

NC