September Musings

September is an interesting month. It is a time of transition between summer and fall. It is still summer, but the school calendar does not know that. It is the transition to fall, but the weather does not normally grasp that concept. While September is a month in which we step into a new season, it is also a time when we get back into established routines.
Our lives are often just as complicated. They are filled with new beginnings which are not always as new as we might project them to be. What is new is often a known routine. What is an established routine is somehow different as we enter into a new experience and gain a new perspective. The expectations we bring from one year of experience often does not match up to the realities we confront in the next one. So life continues to offer us challenges and opportunities to grow, learn, and adapt to new realities.
My latest stint in the hospital has brought a new context for my life. I am not used to struggling for the energy I need to accomplish what I am used to doing as a matter of course. I am not used to the need to measure my activity level in relation to a changed capacity to breathe. While I know these limitations are temporary, it gives me a new perspective on just how easily our lives can be impacted by events beyond our control or expectation. When our bodies fail to function in accord with what we expect of them, we have to adjust what we can expect to accomplish.
Thankfully, our relationship with God in Christ Jesus is not based on those tasks we can accomplish. It is not based on our activity levels, our energy, or the sense of self-worth we may attach to getting things done. It is, after all, about relationship. It is about how we interact with God and one another. That does not depend on the physical deeds we might accomplish, so much as out attitudes and the ways we can find to encourage and support one another.
I have a new appreciation for breathing. I have a new appreciation for expressions of support and care. I have a new appreciation for the energy required to mow grass and cook a meal. I have a new appreciation for the support of a church as I begin an experience of ministry unlike any other I have begun. I have a new appreciation for the Biblical theme of trusting God to do what we are unable to accomplish.

The psalmist declared, “'Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.' Yahweh of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” (Psalm 46:10-11) It is good to know that as we enter a season of new experiences and challenges that God is the one on whom we may rely, the one on whom we must rely.

—©Copyright 2017, Christopher B. Harbin  http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/ 

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