Even on wet miserable days like we've had this week it's hard not to be amazed, yet again at the wonderful colours of autumn. It's nature's way of course, of preparing for winter. It discards all the unnecessary parts, all the extra commitment of feeding the leaves. I remember a few years ago when I was fully committed to life within the organised church and working 3 days a week as assistant manager at the charity shop connected to the local church, I had this strange sense that I shouldn't be taking on any more commitments. In fact, I was feeling that I should be relinquishing some of the things that I had been doing until then. I didn't understand it but felt that God was leading me in a different direction and he wanted me to be free of commitments, free and ready to go or do whatever he wanted. Eventually I laid everything down and felt quite naked spiritually. All my life I had been involved in church activities and projects and yet now, here I was without anything, just me and God, no frills or attachments. And that's the way I am now but what an enriching time I'm having.  |
| From autumn I learnt that even though the leaves fall, the tree remains standing. |
The other great lesson of autumn is the harvest. Those who are gardeners (or farmers working the land) will be coming to the end of a very busy time of harvesting. It seems that in our garden every year at this time I rethink and plan what I want to do next year. I clear out the old and harvested and decide whether I'll do the same again next year or change things a bit. Sometimes when things haven't turned out as I thought or expected, then I change things. I don't do the same thing again. It would seem a bit foolish. If it hasn't worked then why waste time doing it again. As Albert Einstein said, you can't go on doing the same thing again and again and expect a different result. What a waste of time and effort. And yet on a spiritual level we so often do just that. We do not always have the deep satisfaction we hope to find, there is always something missing. We go week after week, still searching and hoping. So often we come away thinking, 'that was good but ... ...' 
As young people we were full of enthusiasm - we were going to change the world. Yet we haven't changed our own town never mind the world. In the big picture, nothing seems to have changed. If a business doesn't get the result it's looking for then it changes how it does things. Yet in 2000 years Christianity has failed to bring the world to God. Maybe we are doing it all wrong. Maybe we should change the way we do things or maybe look at the seed we're sowing. After all you reap what you sow. Maybe we should take notes from creation and shed whatever might hinder us. We need to change, evolve and adapt.
