Waiting for fall

The first day of fall felt like summer. Even with the rain, it felt like a steam bath. I guess it's good in one way---sweating off the pounds. Yes, I still think about that and wonder why it is now so hard to lose the extra pounds. I know I have to stop obsessing about it. Yet most of the advertising time spent is spent on exercise machines (I call them torture machines) and diet products. I cringe when I think of all the time and money spent to try to get thinner. Some of it is good. We all do need to be more aware of our food intake...what we're putting in our bodies. This is especially true when you discover that most of our eggs, poultry and other food products come from unsanitary conditions. (At least that's what you hear from those who know.)

Autumn is my favorite time of year. I love the colorful leaves, the nice cool breezes and the smell of burning leaves. I still recall the time I went to a bonfire the community was having to celebrate. I wanted to bring marshmallows, but chickened out at the last minute. There is nothing to compare to listening to the fire crackle and feeling its warmth touch your face.

Materialism-Do we make time for God?

I went on vacation last week to a place that prides itself on holding onto the past. In the downtown area, there are signs everywhere that the people want to make changes. We are a nation that forever likes to live in the moment, forgetting the past and foraging into the future. Yet we feel a pull to go back to those simple times. Our past has a lot to teach us. It can't define us. We can't be so focused on living or trying to live in a past that we have no part of living.

Hence the struggle...a big part of that past is what we really need to bring back to life. We forgot God to our drive to gather more stuff to satisfy the huge hole in our lives. We look for the next best thing, little realizing that we forgot the very one that gave us our being. I noticed the churches that peppered the area and mourned. Not even the website for the place mentions the presence of these churches. Where has our faith gone? Have we given up on God?

I long for the days, seems like a lifetime ago, when the churches were alive and growing with people. I still remember the days after that horrific day in September 2001 when a mini revival started. What happened? Has time washed away the revival?

Fears relieved or Faith emboldened

My sister and her husband made it home safely from Bermuda. The big scary hurricane heading our way averted the shoreline and made its way out to sea. I thank God for his mercies that are new every morning. I'm now planning another trip myself. I felt it this morning as I struggled to work...that need to get away and relax for a time. I will have a lot to think about and mull over during this time away. I know that I need to let go of my fears for the future. I need to believe that God is in control. Yet, this is hard to do. I let myself get carried away by my worries. I have to stop that. I have to let God be God. If I don't, then it's like giving up or even worse...rejecting God.

I long for the day that I will meet God. I hope that he will say to me...

"Come into your own, thou good and faithful servant."

I know I don't deserve anything from God. None of us do. I marvel though at his grace towards us. His sacrifice for me leaves me breathless. I know that my faith is weak, yet I also know that he uses the weak.