I'm like a leaf hanging on for dear life when suddenly it is overcome by a gust or even gravity and so it decides that to hold on is too much effort. So it lets go, allowing itself to be swept away into the endless sea below of others who have let go. Unless it's early in the season... is it lazy or brave to let go so early, to be taken over by the forces of nature (wind or gravity)? The strength of its relationship with the branch is not as strong as it once was. So, in that moment, it lets go of that to which it once clung so dearly for life. But the leaf must let go in order for the tree to have life again.
...and now some words from Freddie Buechner, concerning the words spoken by Paul in Ephesians 6:16 in his sermon about spiritual warfare:
"Above all, we must take the shield of faith, and faith here is not so much believing this thing or that thing about God as it is hearing a voice that says, "Come unto me." We hear the voice, and then we go without really knowing what to believe, either about the voice or about ourselves; and yet we go. Faith is standing in the darkness, and a hand is there, and we take it."
One final thought that I have had over the past week which was sparked by a song lyric: "You are all I need..." I'm not sure what or who the person was singing to, but if you had asked me 3 years ago...maybe even a couple of weeks ago, my heart would have resonated with that and I would have coveted that feeling towards God. I have oft thought it to be so spiritually mature to be able to say to God, "You are all I need." However, in that moment of hearing the song lyric, I remembered that God did create us to be in relationship with one another. "It is not good for man to be alone." He doesn't want us to be lone ranger Christians. He wants us to be in authentic, gut wrenching, life-done-together, healing kind of community. He wants us to bear one another's burdens.
that's all for now.
ay look at that picture!
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