I just got back from art class. Today was really fun because we made pigs out of modeling clay. THIS IS WHAT I DO FOR SCHOOL, FOLKS! Modeling clay pigs. It was just so calming and happy, and after art I always have two free hours before chapel. Usually during these hours I just feel more reflective and content than any other time of the week, so that's usually when I journal and blog and have a little alone time with a cup of coffee and my thoughts. It's just a pleasant way to spend a Tuesday.
It's fall! For the longest time I have adamantly decried that summer is the best season, with it's hot dogs and swimsuits and mown grass, but I seriously might be changing my tune. Last year, fall in Madison was so blissfully delightful that I think my preferences started bending toward crisp, crunchy mornings instead of hazy humid ones. I started liking lattes instead of lemonade, scarves instead of shorts, and pumpkins over watermelons, and now I feel I can claim with distinct certainty that autumn is my new favorite season. Now it's final. I love fall!
Fall just brings too many delightful things with it to not love it the most out of all the seasons - Packer games, apple cider, apple pie, apple orchards, apple butter, apple bread, carmel apples, bobbing for apples... haunted houses, Reformation hymns, beautiful leaves, fall coats, weather that makes lounging about in a sweatshirt and jeans just perfectly lovely, pumpkin spice lattes, cornfields, the promise of Thanksgiving and Christmas drawing closer, scarves and mittens, Badger games, lately, Flandrau state park, cozy fall food like ham sandwiches and mashed potatoes and pie, clear nights full of stars...
I might have a couple other reasons why lately I've been loving fall so much. And why I've been distracted. But I digress :)
I think I will always want to live somewhere that has all four seasons - they're just all too varied and interesting to give any one of them up. The Bible doesn't talk much about fall the season, but it talks about tons of other falls - it talks about the Fall into sin, how we as humans time and time again fall out of line with what God says, a little bit about falling in love (with people and with God), and, most comfortingly, how when we fall, He is always there to pick us up.
Lately with all the joy I've felt living at MLC, starting a new school, meeting new people, and experiencing all kinds new experiences, I'm feeling pretty firm. Pretty confident. There's not much that I feel could rock me right now. However, I Corinthians 10:12 looked like a wake-up call for me
" So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!"
Last semester was the most tumultuous one of my life. So many things that I thought stood firm threw me for a loop; everything was in a constant state of stress and upheaval. The positive that came from that was my relationship with God grew much stronger in light of all the stumbling blocks, and that struggle makes me appreciate MLC all the more for what it is and the spiritual encouragement it provides. I feel firm... but I can also already feel myself growing complacent. I can already see myself starting to just depend on chapel services as the vehicle to hear God's Word instead of working on it personally - and therefore, I need to be careful. I'm probably closer to "falling" here by sheer complacency than I was when I was in Madison.
God doesn't make us go about attempting to build up our faith alone, however. He is firm and He is permanent; He doesn't change like the seasons. I love Isaiah, and one of my favorite verses in the whole thing is 40:8:
"The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever"
(this is also partly quoted in I Peter 1:24-25 in case you're interested in checking that part out, too)
We all fall short of the glory of God, but His word and faithfulness stand forever. And His Word gives us hope:
"The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down... He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds" (Psalm 145:7, 147:3)
As fall blossoms into the fullness of it's radiance through October, be careful so that you don't fall.
Now go crunch through some leaves!
P.S - This song isn't really about fall, but it's so happy it is one of the only things that comes close to describing how I joyous I feel. There's a really cute line about "picking apples in late September" and "I'll kiss you between the ears" FALL IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!
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