Truths To Remember When You're Staring at Falling Leaves
Golden leaves dot the lawn, now shades green and brown. A handful continue clinging to their branches, refusing to give in to the inevitable drop. The seasons turn and this time of year the colors change, extravagantly at times, but ultimately the end is a dull brown, as the frost chills any lingering life of the plants.
I tie up my sneakers at work, enter my ER, knowing it will be another day facing sickness, pain, and death. The autumn leaves picture it.
It’s inescapable.
There’s a privilege and calling to work here; to serve and care for others in the hardest of times. But compounding losses wear out the soul until it bulges like a tire beneath the weight of a heavy, overloaded truck box. These seasons arrive in the midst of our everyday lives, changing the scenery entirely.
So, when we find ourselves weary in the day to day, feeling empty from pouring out and facing yet another burden again today, here’s some truths to remember as we enter our day.
Our Ongoing Reality
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—” (Rom 5:12)
If we’re honest, we don’t like the reminder of our sin. It’s hard to acknowledge our shortcomings and our failures. Plus, living in perfection seems to be the popular expectation for the Christian.
From the broken covenant between God and Adam, we live in a world splintered with struggle, it’s evident everywhere we go. The Westminster Shorter Catechism reminds us that “the fall brought mankind into a state of sin and misery” (Q.17), and in our exhaustion and emptiness we heartily agree-with the misery part at least.
When you look around, where do you see evidence of the fall?
Our Savior Redeems Us by His Death
“and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:15)
Just as the spring rains bring life and color to the lawn, so the death of Christ gives life to us who were spiritually dead, not only in our salvation, but a daily renewal by the Spirit as we increasingly learn to die to sin and live for righteousness.
The Westminster Catechism also reminds us that God didn’t leave mankind to perish but to “deliver them out of the state of sin and misery, and to bring them into a state of salvation by a Redeemer” (Q.20); taking us from darkness to light, from old to new, from tattered clothes to splendid garments.
The burdens we carry, heavy as they are, aren’t left for us to hold alone. He died that we would live, and while this means walking through tough times, he molds and shapes us through every moment to live increasingly for him.
How does your position in Christ make a difference in your life today?
Death Will be Destroyed
“The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (Cor 15:26).
As Paul explains the gospel again to the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 15, he points us to the hope of resurrection and the veritable defeat of death, for “in Christ shall all be made alive” (1Cor 15:22). Hardship and loss are not the end of our story. We wait for all things to be put beneath the feet of Christ, there is a blessed day coming when they will be.
It’s a promise to believe and a hope for us to carry.
Watching the leaves fall to crumble in a pile on the ground, I’m reminded the gospel is our reality and our hope, the now and the not yet. We may feel weary but there is truth to give us hope. It empowers us as we move throughout our day to continue loving and serving those around us with the love we have received from Christ.
How can you remember hope today?
Used with permission from www.amberthiessen.com
