The days are getting shorter. Daylight is fading away earlier than it used to. Recently, I awoke early in the morning to get in a bike ride before the heat of the day. I had to wait quite awhile for even a hint of light. The leaves are reminding me that change is on the way. Some change is good and gladly welcomed, but as the years go by, I struggle with other aspects of it. A change in diet and adding more exercise is good, but actually sticking to it is often difficult. Moving to a new town is great, but making new friends is difficult. Starting a new job is exciting until you realize that learning new skills is quite frustrating. Saying you love Jesus and wanting to follow him is easy, but actually giving him your all and committing your life totally to him requires much more than mere words. There must be a willingness to not only vocalize my desire to follow Christ, but to allow him access to all parts of me and exchange my wants, dreams and desires for his. Without the fall leaves changing colors and eventually dying away, there would be no move towards a different season or temperature change and definitely no place for the new growth that will occur in the coming seasons. Without a willingness to allow God to come in and change every part of us, we will miss out on earth and in heaven the fullness of what life as a sold out servant was intended to be. Life is to be a culmination of God infused days filled with a fullness and completeness that comes only by serving him with our whole heart.
“Then He (Jesus) said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).