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CHANGES….AND KEEPING AND GROWING FAITH
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
2 Corinthians 5:17
We are in the midst of the season of transitions: Later sunrises, earlier sunsets, cooler weather, tress shedding their leaves in a burst of color. The harvest is being brought in. And, we wait as a people for periods of gloom as winter is nigh. The song I’ve chosen, “Turn Turn Turn” by the 1960s folk rock group The Byrds, was written by Pete Seeger. It draws on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:
For everything there is a season, A time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest.
It is a time of change, of aging, of looking back in time too soon forgotten and too quickly marked. It is more than turning pages on a calendar. This is when we step back as the year progresses, asking ourselves, have I followed Your word, Lord? Have I done Your will? What do You want of me as the world You created grows older?
There is a large tree on property about a half block from our classroom building. It is off campus, but stands towering over the others. In the 12 years we have been in Cray-Seaburg Hall, I have used the tree as my personal life marker, my “transition” tree. I have noticed it is staying green longer over the years, due partly, I believe, to a lack of moisture. When it changes, the transformation to a blast of colors is remarkable. The changes are also sobering. I have passed another fall here at Benedictine College. All things change, and I and my colleagues change with it.
Perhaps it is an element of “growing older” but the little things like fall weather speak to me with a combination of joy for our emerging school year and our interactions with our students. It also is a sobering reminder that all things change, all must pass, there will be markers to consider as my personal seasons progress.
I could be fearful, I could be sad, I could be greatly apprehensive. I have been all those. I also turn to the Lord in my moments when gloom sets in and understand His message. Being in Christ means we grow, we interact, we celebrate, we change as His will is done.
And, as I watch the “transition tree” change, I say to myself, “Lord, I come to do Your will. I am listening.”
