October Ramblings...Are your leaves only half changed?

We have a tree in our yard that usually turns a beautiful red in the fall. This year, the leaves on one half of the tree have changed and the other half hasn't yet. And, they aren't as brilliantly colored as they have been in past years.  It reminds me of me sometimes.

When I came back to the church it took me a long time to recommit myself to Christ.  What do I mean?  Well, I had made a statement that I belonged to Him but I wasn't living for Him.  What did that look like?  I went to church, I attended a small group bible study and I had a passionate prayer life.  But, I still struggled with BIG sin issues. I didn't change my habits on the outside.  I still drank- a lot, I still struggled with sexual sin, I swore a lot, I basically did what I wanted and only felt a little bad about it. It was at a "Revival" type of event that God showed me that I had one foot on either side of a chasm and I needed to choose which side to be on.  I made the leap that day. I would like to say that it was an immediate change, it wasn't.  In fact, it took a couple more months for me to realize that I was still looking back to the other side of the chasm and even then change wasn't immediate, it took hard work to get there.

Change is hard!

I was and still am the type of person who likes to "stick it to the man".  In this case, I was fighting hard against giving up what I considered "freedoms" and moving to what God calls us to do. I eventually made small choices that helped with the big things in my life, all with the help and grace of God and my new Christian friends.  That meant giving up a lot of my old habits, which included a lot of my old friends.  It sucked, it really did.  I felt like I was giving up a part of myself.  And I was, because in order to take up our cross daily we have to die to self and become a new creation in Him.  It meant losing relationships I had from childhood or at least a big change in them.

Where are you at in your journey?

I encourage you today to take stock of where you are in your life, with your faith. In fact, I will be encouraging you to do so frequently this month, at least I hope to.

Look inside and see where you are.  This is something I think we need to do daily, and I try most of the time.  Lately I have to remember that His Grace is Enough.  When daily life gets to you, when it seems like you are in a holding pattern or sometimes slipping down a slope, remember that He is throwing you a rope, but you have to grab it and do some of the work.  There will be some days that will feel like you are slipping down that rope and getting rope burn, other will feel like you are just hanging on for dear life, still others will feel like you are drifting. Then there are days that burdens feel lighter and because of that it feels like you don't have to pull that hard to make progress, it just happens.  In the end just know that he is always holding that rope and he is cheering us on like a parent who loves His children and wants what is best for them.

Happy October.  Here is gets cooler and the leaves change, things look a bit brighter when the sun comes out and the air smells crisper.

Do what you need to do to get back on the right track.  It isn't always easy, but in the end, it gives you Hope.   Do you have hope?

2 Corinthians 12:6-10

Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.