Dear Fall,
Every year you bring beautiful miraculous change to our surroundings. This year we need you to work your magic and then some. We all desperately need a change….
Winter seemed to start it all. We thought with Spring things would get better…not really. Then we thought “Surely Summertime will be normal!”….sigh… Maybe things did get a little better…but things are still hard. So we are leaning on you, Fall, to really turn things around for us.
Your season is usually a breath of fresh air for us after a long hot summer. The air feels cool and crisp. Promises of pumpkins, hayrides, trick or treating, and then family gathering around a table sharing turkey give us much to look forward to. Our fall may look different this year though. Yes, there are still pumpkins and all things pumpkin spiced, the leaves will change into brilliant colors before they fall to the ground, and on the fourth Thursday in November families will find a way to gather (limited or virtually most likely) and say Thanks.
We all need a break from the stress.
Could you help us out Fall?
We know your hands are full with the changing of the temperatures, winds, leaves, and plants but could you maybe somehow just give us all a lift? If it was a perfect world, we would ask that you bring an end to the pandemic, an end to the social injustices happening around us, and align all our hearts politically….but of course, it is not a perfect world. We know that while you bring great change to the physical world around us- we are the only ones who can change our outlook.
So instead, our dear fall season, we ask that you inspire change within us. Work your beautiful transitional magic in our world and allow our hearts and homes to focus more on what is happening right next to us. Help our families to be the best they can. Help us to share smiles under our masks with strangers. Help us to find something to belly laugh about.
As we see the leaves change, may we be reminded that this is just a “season” of our life. Yes, it has been a hard season, but it will not always be like this.
As we feel the cool crisp air on our face, may we be reminded that we must hold on to hope and share that hope with others.
As we see the pumpkins, bales of hay and Thanksgiving day plans somehow begin, may we be reminded that even when we feel like things are not good for us, there are still others who have it much worse. Help us to be grateful. May we shift the focus from ourselves and seek a way to help others.
As we sip apple cider or smell the first wisps of smoke from our fireplace, may we look at those closest to us, our spouses, our children, our parents, our coworkers, and say a prayer of thanks. How can we make things easier on them?
As we see the sun begin to set earlier in all its glory, may we praise our God who created it all. Maybe it’s time to reconnect with him? Stress has a way of making us feel far from God but one step back to Him and we realize he has been there all along.
Craig Groeschel once defined success as “doing the best you can, where you are, with whatever you’ve got.” For people of faith that also means “doing the best you can, wherever you are, with whatever you have – to the glory of God.” As each day of Fall happens, may we choose to do the best we can, wherever we are, with whatever we have got.
So get to work Fall and make those glorious changes happen before us. We will be hard at work making changes within us.
Sincerely,
All of us.
