Tis the season …. <3
I have been doing a study this summer by Ruth Chou Simons called “Truthfilled.”
It is based on a practice she learned from her husband which she calls “preaching to my own heart.” Grounded in the example of Psalm 43 and the book of Colossians, Ruth walks this study through the fact that we are always giving ourselves inner chatter and often the words we are speaking to ourselves are based on old ruts and, basically, lies we have come to accept as truth.
About ourselves, about our circumstances, about God and about others.
By filling our minds with truth (hence the name….Truthfilled) and practicing preaching Truth to our own hearts, we are transformed in our thinking and as we know, we act on what we think.
She is an artistic student of the seasons and so she has separated the study into four seasons that use the natural order of the conditions of spring, summer, fall and winter to compare to our own spiritual seasons.
I was particularly interested in her take on fall. She calls it a season when all the abundance stops. The gardens are spent, the flowers are no longer blooming, the long days of sun and activity have left us tired and sun dried and full.
When I read her description, at first I was confused because I thought how Fall has always been a season I felt energized.
She says,
“In the same way that a garden explodes and then must recoup after being spent, fall is a season of the heart that reestablishes and reminds a believer where his or her provision for perseverance comes from.”
Truthfilled by Ruth Chou Simons, Lifeway Press, 2020. Page 121
As I walked this morning I enjoyed, as I do every time I walk the neighborhood that surrounds us, the bounty of color in pots and hanging baskets and flower patches that line the homes of our area. The hydrangea bushes are so full of blooms they take my breath away.
The giant hibiscus in front of many houses make me laugh as they really just exceed themselves in how huge the flowers are. The corn fields have reached full height and in some places we cannot see anything but the tall green stalks on either side of the walkway. We call it the corn tunnel.
Our own little pollinator garden has filled in and plants are crowding against each other with those crazy pumpkin vines continuing to send out new shoots and little vines looking for anything to wrap themselves around.
And I love it all.
A feast for the eyes of someone who can not ever get enough of the wide range of colors and shapes and handiwork of God. But I sense that we will soon be winding down. And although I will be sad when the sun starts setting before we even are thinking about what to have for dinner and I will miss sitting out on the patio and just watching little hummingbirds flit around, I know the shorter, cooler days will bring a refreshing.
The seasons are all part of the ebb and flow of our lives and each has a purpose for both the natural and spiritual in us and around us.
So enjoy the bounty even as the heat and humidity climb.
Embrace the cool at the end of the day when the sun is setting and the fireflies begin their dancing about the yard.
Stop at the farmer’s market….take someone up on that offer for tomatoes and zucchini…grill…read outside in the shade…admire the flowers.
Take in all the fullness of summer now so that when fall comes, you can embrace the ahhhhhhhh…..of harvest and then rest.
Bless you.
You are dearly loved <3