Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Fall

There’s a fire roaring in the fireplace.  The first one of the season.  It feels nice to have this Oklahoma summer finally come to a close, opening wide arms to reds and golds and wool scarves and tall boots and soul foods.  The Thunder is playing in Milwaukee and on my TV screen, dogs curled up on the carpet, family members lounging on the sofa and enjoying the warmth of the flames and our own togetherness.  Welcome, autumn.


I’m basking in the moment, one of few I will have over the next five to seven years.  It’s a moment I would have judged others for in years past.  Pre-grace Reagan deemed comfort and happiness unacceptable companions to a true Christiatin life, which certainly only included pain and cross-cultural evangelism and living in abject poverty alongside the poorest of the poor.  Not that I was living this way, mind you, but the thought somehow seemed enough. 

But these days, I receive it.  In all its simplicity, its lack of striving or spiritual depth or saving souls from the pit of Hell as we speak, I receive it.  Because I believe Jesus is present in those moments of rest, extensions of deep breath and nestling in.  He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.

There is a time for the pouring out, the all in, the giving of yourself to the work of the Lord.  And there is a time for the settling in the quiet and the peace, the thanksgiving, the joy in simplicity.  Now is the time.  Tomorrow is another day.  Lord, may I see it with Your eyes and give it our all.

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