I realize that each change of season has its unique markers – characteristics that reach easily into our senses, our memories, our spirits.
This time of year, seems each year, to be so sudden, so abrupt. Perhaps it is because it is so much more bracing to shift suddenly from a day in the 70’s to a day in the 50’s, or especially a morning in the 40’s! And while movement into longer days of spring seems to be something of a slow crawl, the change in actual daylight in fall seems more like a sprint!
Some elements of the passage of time, filtered through our perception, cause us to appreciate how precious is each moment, including this moment, or cause us to miss that truth entirely. In my medicine cabinet, there are items I’ve been moving with me for years, not because I need them, but because I have them. Other items seem to make that inventory complete because I have used them, if only seldom, but I was grateful they were there, and I will be the next time, too. And, finally, there are the items which complete chest because they help me complete each day.
In the words of Ezekiel to Israel living the harsh reality of exile, of Paul to the Philippians whose thoughts and minds cannot be as one yet, and Matthew’s account of Jesus addressing the chief priests and elders this weekend, urgency is paramount. Perceiving the Word and the will of God and then conforming our thoughts and actions to them is of such critical importance that we must be prepared, now, to hear and to choose, to see and to do. There might be not only unnecessary-they might actually be distracting or harmful. They might be the kind of baggage that causes me to say “I will” but then to not do. They might cause my heart to ask “What’s in it for me,” rather than how we can strengthen “we.” Seek truth as if life really DOES depend on it!