Renewal

“I will bless My people and their homes around My holy hill. And in the proper season I will send the showers they need. There will be showers of blessing.” ~ Ezekiel 34-26 “There shall be showers of blessing; this is the promise of love; there shall be seasons refreshing, sent from the Savior above. Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need; Mercy drops ‘round us are falling, but for the showers we plead.” ~ There Shall Be Showers of Blessing ~ Baptist Hymnal 1956 “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under Heaven.” ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1 “To everything, turn, turn, turn, There is a season, turn, turn, turn, And a time to every purpose under Heaven” Turn, Turn, Turn Lyrics – The Byrds ~ 1965   In the mid-1960’s the folk-rock group, The Byrds, made popular a song whose lyrics were taken almost verbatim from the Bible from the book of Ecclesiastes, King James Version, although the sequence was rearranged to fit the melody. When I hear it, I think of seasons of life…past, present and to come…and I reflect on what I’ve learned. Autumn is my favorite season and we are in the throes of its beginning for this current year. I’m not exactly sure why it’s become my favorite over the years, but it has. In fact, for me, there’s something fascinating about the changing of every season that causes me to sit up and take notice. I suppose that Winter into Spring, the shedding of dormancy into new life, is the most obvious seasonal change. After all, what compares to new beginnings and rebirth? Less apparent I think, but not less important, is the morphing of Spring into Summer. This continues the growing season, the time we take advantage of light and warmth to prepare for the colder months ahead. These are the lazy, hazy days of Summer-fun coupled with rest and relaxation; in a very real way, the calm before the storm. We plan, plant, water and nurture, day after day and week after week. We know if we are diligent, a harvest of bounty awaits us at the changing of yet another season, one in which we’ll need the fruits of our Summer labor to carry us through, to sustain us when life is colder, darker, more bleak…a time when it’s up to us to lean on and utilize the provisions with which we’ve been blessed. Whether a harvest of fruits and vegetables ready for preserving, or the blessing of strength and health that permits us to work so we can be warm in winter: Cutting wood for fire, knitting or stitching warm blankets and clothes, or the good health to attend to the work of our employer or business for steady income. After laboring comes our harvest, the yield of blessings we reap from sowing and nurturing during those prior seasons of growth. But “therein lies the rub,” a common phrase reminds us. We have to “make hay while the sun shines” another admonishes. The opportunity to care for ourselves, being good stewards of our resources, may pass us by if we’re not careful to take action. I don’t know about you, but in my depressed (and often anxious) state, this is much easier said than done. So that is the topic that concerns me today; how do we transition during the changing seasons and circumstances of life? Right now I’m doing what is called “writing in process.” It means I don’t have it all figured out and I’m not exactly sure where my words will take me. I’m thinking and writing concurrently. I know there is something deep down that I need to figure out for myself, and maybe help you along the way, but I don’t have the answers just yet. So I’m talking to you as I type, hoping that will help, the way chatting with old friends and baring our souls often leads to seeing challenges in a new light or helps us begin to understand something that, until now, has escaped us. Fall is a slow fade into dormancy…not death, but dormancy. And in times of hardship, that’s the hope because dormancy doesn’t last forever. It will pass. But for now…there’s a meme that floats around social media this time of year that declares, “autumn is about to show us how beautiful it is to let things go.” I don’t know the origins of this phrase, but it is usually accompanied with photos of falling leaves of yellow, orange and red, some being tossed by the wind and others laying in piles beneath barren trees. And every time I scroll across these words, I find myself in awe. It’s such a simple, yet profound truth. And isn’t that the way truth is? It sometimes eludes us, even for long periods of time because maybe, just maybe, we make it too hard. We rack our brains trying to wrap our mind around life’s circumstances, and try as we might, there often seems to be no answer. Then suddenly it’s there. Maybe not a complete answer, but a beginning…somewhere to start. Let go… The simple thought crosses our mind. It’s like a whisper, but from where?  And there is a subtle “knowing” deep in our soul.  “Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21) Let it go… There it is again, a little more emphatically. You feel the muscles in your hands relax as they loosen their grip. You breath quickens and you hear the gentle rustle of the air, as that thing you’ve held tightly to for so long wafts to the ground. Your heart races as it surrenders to change. When that thing…that stubbornly held belief, or the insistence of control over something no longer yours, the toxic habit that was never good for you, or the relationship long since dead…when it hits the ground there isn’t a thud. Instead there’s a