Unshackled Moments ~ September 20, 2017 ~ Fall Is Loading, Please Be Patient

We are two days, according to the calendar, from the last day of summer and the first day of fall. The truth though is that we don't go much by calendars for such things as the seasons. And Mother Nature doesn't seem to either. We tend to go by how we feel and our circumstances. For many summer ended when they or their children returned to school. For others it's about temperatures and scenery. When the leaves change color and a jacket is needed for a motorcycle ride, summer has ended and fall begun.

But however we measure it, we know fall is coming and winter looms in the not so distant future, and by Christmas many of us will be eagerly awaiting spring. The seasons progress with time, and the amount of daylight determines the season and the color of the leaves. It's not really about temperature and whether we can wear shorts or need a coat. It's all about the sun. Friday, September 22 is the last day of summer, and the 23rd will be all fall, even if it is 90 degrees here in East Texas, which the forecast says is likely.

About a week ago I walked outside around 11 PM to go sit in my chair, smoke my pipe, review my day and talk to God for a while before trying to sleep. The air felt chilly on my bare arms, and I thought, wow, it's finally starting to cool off in the evenings and soon I will need to wear a jacket out here. Fall is definitely on the way. But yesterday the temperature climbed as high as it had most days in August, and even at midnight I needed the ceiling fan on in my prayer room. Summer made it clear that it is not dead quite yet, at least not in Nacogdoches.

There is a point to this rambling about the weather, I promise. It's not simply small talk because I have nothing to say. You see, it  occurred to me this morning that despite the return of the heat over the last few days and the progress toward cooler temperatures slowed and even backed up some, I never became concerned that something had gone terribly awry. I never worried that God had become displeased with fall and decided to punish it by letting summer reassert itself. I never thought that fall had slipped up or messed up or become complacent and allowed summer to regain some hold on the weather. And not once did it cross my mind that the heat meant that fall would not come.

That would be foolish, right? No one thinks like that. We know the change is coming, sometimes the evidence comes quickly, sometimes slowly, but the seasons will change. Sometimes fall arrives to stay its turn before the equinox, although that is a very rare occurrence in Texas, and other times summer may fight and gasp to hang on until Halloween. And there is never a clear line of division. I don't recall there ever being a year where there weren't warm days followed by cool and then a return to hot before more cool days appeared. And it is quite usual during the changing of the seasons to have warm or even hot days with cool evenings and cold nights. The progress of the seasons does not come like a switch being turned on but through a process and transition. We know this. We understand this. We may moan about  it, talk about it, we may make jokes like fall is loading please be patient, but we do not become anxious and fearful over it. There's no need to panic over the thermostat hitting 90. Football is here, the equinox is two days away, and the cool temperatures of fall are on the way, no matter what it feels like today.

But while we understand this transition process with the seasons of the year, we all too often miss it with the seasons of our spiritual life. We hear and remember that it's about progress rather than perfection, and we are grateful for it. We know that we are not perfect, far from it. But yet we demand perfection in our progress. We expect a clear defining climb toward our goal, and if, no, when, it doesn't happen that way, we freak. We become worried that God has quit helping us or is displeased with us. Or maybe we just know that we are messing up or have become complacent and have failed again. The old life, the former self, is back and we're going backwards. It's only a matter of time before we're right back in all the bondage of the past and life is miserable again. And all of that is bogus.

Imagine we demanded this same perfection of progress with nature. As fall approaches the days should begin to cool. So, if it 89 degrees today, it better not hit 90 again before next summer. If it does, fall has somehow failed. If it gets warmer today than it was yesterday it means fall will not arrive at all, and within weeks we can reasonably fear that the summer will be back in full force and to stay. Of course we know that's ridiculous. That's not how nature works. It's not how we work either. Some days the color of my leaves may declare the transformation in progress and speak of the beauty to come, giving God glory for His handiwork while the temperature of my attitude says the dog days remain. It doesn't mean change isn't happening. It doesn't mean change has failed. Even if after the maturity of winter is reached I have an episode of Indian Summer, it doesn't mean that winter is over, it doesn't mean that the changes that have happened were not real, and it doesn't mean that all, or even anything, is lost. It most certainly doesn't mean that God has abandoned His transformation work.

We who have become His children have been declared new creations, because of the evidence of the work of the Son, not because of us. This is much like the evidence of the sun and the equinox will determine when the new season has begun. The circumstances and the way it feels have nothing to do with what the sun has proved to be true, and nothing is going to stop the coming changes. The circumstances and our feelings have nothing to do with the truth that the Son has declared the work accomplished, and we are new. The evidence of the transformation is a process, and we do want to continue to make progress toward becoming who He would have us be. But progress is not perfection, not even perfection of progress. We will have warm days and cool days. It's not something to freak out about. But because of the Son, no matter how hard the old tries to haunt and hang on, we can have hope. The season is changing, even when we can't see or feel it, and He will complete the work that He has begun in us.

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