SubscribeThe other side of autumn
Autumn, with all its beauty, has a flip side. After driving along and admiring trees arrayed in brilliant colors, I turned into a suburban neigborhood to a friend’s house. Along one block, leaves, drab and dry, covered yards and spilled out onto the sidewalk and streets. Following a hard rain Tuesday, leaves clogged street drains and filled house gutters. Some streets flooded and had to be closed. Autumn isn’t a passive season; it requires some work. It is a lot like living a life of faith.
Autumn calls us to moments of grace when we can pause and soak up the glory of God. Then something happens. The winds blow, rains pour and clinging leaves lose their grip and tumble to the ground. If you are fortunate to live on a leafy street as I do, then you know that this time of year also means lots of raking, leaf blowing, bagging and sweeping. If it rains, it means being careful not to slip on wet leaves if you’re walking and not to skid on them if you’re driving. Day by day trees lose not just the color that favors our days, they also lose the leaves that cover our yards. 
Such is my faith journey. My best spirit-filled seasons are filled with awe, joy and thanksgiving. Much like the time I hiked up a mountain trail in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and reached the top. Standing there and surveying the fall greenery below and the cloud-dappled sky above, the conviction that I can truly do all things through Christ radiated through me. I knew I was in the presence of a mighty God.
I’ve experienced that mountain top sensation many times since as I have grown in my relationship with God. It has come after spending time in a community of sisters at a church retreat, where women have shared, cried and worshipped together. It also has come during individual disciplined study and prayer as I have searched for and found answers to questions troubling my heart. A good sermon, with a message that seems directed specifically to me, also has lifted me to new heights.
On the flip side, there have been times I have felt like I’m climbing a mountain in fuzzy bedroom slippers. Those were my dry days — days when I felt like I could nothing right. Have you ever had those? Sometimes I go though a stretch when I just cannot focus during prayer or Bible study. My spirit is weaken from being too busy and feeling overwhelmed. I have gone on walks to meditate and clear my head and instead come back with more things on my mind than before. I’ve come realize that during those seasons it’s okay to pull away briefly from church activities and other peopled functions to regroup. Then I work hard to clear away the dryness. What I have come to know is that the same things that I do to elevate my soul are even more necessary to break through the morass that clogs my spirit.
Right now I am taking delight in today, colorful leaves and drab leaves both. Because I know that good days follow bad.
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