New BEGINNINGS

In a few weeks the rhythm of our society will return to the fall season. Students and teachers will return to the halls of academia. Farmers will harvest their summer crops. Football will gear up as baseball winds down. The days will get considerably shorter and the temperatures cooler. Nature will reveal what’s hiding under the lush green of summer as colorful explosions burst forth from the trees and grasses.
            I’m reminded of a poem by Carl Sandburg called Autumn Movement,
 
“I CRIED over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.
The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman, the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.
The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes, new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind, and the old things go, not one lasts.”
 
Nothing really last forever does it? There are simple moments when it seems best if time could be frozen. Moments when it is all working just right; moments that yearn to be held on to forever. Like the seasons of the year, time will pass and as one thing is passing a new thing arises. While we yearn to hang on the beautiful things passing before us change is always moving us forward.

In the spiritual life it is often the same. Jesus asks us to be alert and waiting for him at every moment. He also talks about being salt and light for the world.  Paul asks us to be vehicles and the bearers of Christ to this broken world. Where do we get the energy for this work? How do we go about it?

As fall begins and the season changes could you take time to reflect on where God is calling you to do new things in your life? What do you need to let fall to the ground? Hard questions. Maybe even frightening.

A friend called the other day excited for a new venture. She decided to leave a long time job and start anew by finishing a degree. Why? There was a deeper calling for her that she felt needed answering.  Another person called and found that it was time to let go of a long time burden he was carrying. Time to forgive and forget. He wanted to start new in some other relationships and felt his burden was hindering him form that new start.

We can’t have spring without fall and winter. In much the same way we won’t grow in our relationships with God and each other without seasons of change and letting go as new birth comes forth.

​As we gear up for fall many new programs and studies will begin at St. Thomas. Perhaps it is time to deepen your spiritual journey. Maybe its time to let a ministry go… or perhaps you need to find a new start with something. What is God revealing as the old passes from you and new birth begins?