Autumn's Dying Splendour

Autumn is a season of splendour. Of fabulous colours.
It is in actuality - a dying.
It's the call to do those last minute summer things we wanted to get done before the cold winds blow.
The leaves will soon fall and cover the ground, leaving the limbs of the trees bare, exposed, vulnerable.

It is a stripping of all that we may feel we are. A stripping of an identity that we have created or is a natural ability or gift that we say, "That's who I am".  It is a taking away, so we can see better.  It is a stripping to rediscover who we really are.

It's easy to make 'summer's' activity a part of who we are.  The season of where we are prospering and succeeding. Of where we may be getting it right...

What 'leaves' of yours may be falling??
- talents?
-identity?
-friendships?
-accomplishments?

The trouble is when we place our identity in something that changes, when the change occurs, we become angry, disillusioned, withdrawn, etc.  Our identity must come from the One who never changes and who never leaves us.  (Hebrews 12:5)

If you are a good baseball or football player, you will always need to hit, throw, or catch well.
If you are a good singer, then singing the correct notes become important and doing it right is priority.
If you are an artist or writer, then what someone says about your painting or writing becomes very important!
I must get it right...  I need you to get it right... I must succeed... otherwise, who am I??

But if you are a daughter or son of God and know that deep in your soul, then being a baseball/football player becomes fun and you care about the one who may not be as good as you.  A good singer becomes delightful, for you sing from a heart that is loved.
If you write and paint, the colours and words flow out of heart that knows a bit more of His words in our story and how all the colours make a beautiful portrait.

Our lives become a symphony.  A song for Him when all is done out of being loved and known by the One who is Life and loves us well.

So, sometimes, a stripping is necessary to remind us of this truth.  His greater Truth.  Sometimes, we must experience a death to a dream, a failure to something we're good at.  Sometimes we need to miss the ball, to remember His strength is sufficient.
Our fallen nature wants to be top-dog.  We want to be the best, the brightest, the most right.  That's not God's nature.  His is humility.  Looking out for those around you.  Sometimes you are strongest when you bend down.  You are the best when you let someone go before you.  You are most right, when you are quiet or speak an encouraging word for someone else to succeed.

What has or is stripping you??
-a death of a loved one?
-disappointments?
-rejection?
-moving to a new community?
-a dream that seems to have folded under?

And so I ponder... if autumn's colours are glorious and in reality the leaves are dying and soon the trees bare, "Why do we think it beautiful?"  Could it be that as hard as the 'deaths' are in our journey, they display a glory to those who look on??  A tree is doing what it is meant to be and do, and when we do what we are meant to do - depend on God, choosing to look for Him and find Him in the middle of hard, it is glorious.  Because then we are being, resting in the One who created us to glorify Him.  To be an extension of Him.

Glorious, in the finished product, while the moment is hard.
All colours together create the whole picture.
Every black and white note creates the symphony.

If you, my friend, are in the middle of being stripped, out of comfort zone, it just may be that's where God wants you to be... (I say that gently...) He wants you to re-member Him and who you are in Christ.  He has the final Word of who you are.  You are loved. by. Him. no. more. no. less.
Take His words to your bleeding and wounded heart and let them soak in and bring healing.  For it is only in death (of ourselves and self-protections) that life (Jesus) can be birthed within us.  As a seed falls into the ground and dies, only then can it bring forth fruit.  John 12:24
There is a glory in death that we are not aware of.  that I cannot grasp...  It's hard.  It's painful.  It's a glory all of its own.

Your dream may be coming true, it just looks differently...
You may lose your identity, to find your true one...
You may fail, to learn of His strength
(and for me it is to remind me that my worth is not dependent on me succeeding... I am valuable because HE LOVES ME.)

And, maybe, the words you hear are louder and stronger than His words of Truth and so, I fight for you - YOU ARE WORTH EVERYTHING TO HIM.  HE LOVES YOU.  HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR YOU.  (say it to yourself, take it to the Father and ask Him if it's true, and listen to what He says.)

YOU BELONG.  (Isaiah 43:1)
   YOU ARE LOVED.   (Jeremiah 31:3)
      YOU ARE VALUABLE. YOU MATTER.  (Isaiah 49:15-16)
(these are truths that God gave to me and spoke to my words that were beating loudly in my heart.  these are truths that I need to go back to over and over.  Sometimes it's a conscious choosing to believe His greater Truth.  I share them here, because maybe someone needs to hear them.)  if you want to respond and don't want to here where all comments can be viewed, my email is jelsymphony@gmail.com

Autumn is a reminder of His grace.  A reminder of Jesus' strength and power in the middle of hard.  That, there is a glory that happens when we find Jesus to be enough.