It’s going to be a fabulous day today, at least it will be weather-wise. As I write this it’s 60 degrees with a high expected of 84. A taste of fall at last. You can almost hear the gumbo pots hitting stove tops and the packs of chicken and sausage sailing across check out counters. There are already leaves on my lawn and we are four weeks into football season. Unless you’re a LSU fan and football season ended last Saturday night 🙂
Fall for me is more about renewal than New Years Day or springtime. It will finally be cool enough to get into my yard and do all the stuff it’s just been too hot to do for months. I have had plans for this first cool day for months. I’m not going to be doing what I planned. A dear friend who is faithful in nursing home ministry called last night. He has an emergency and can’t do his nursing home teachings this morning and tomorrow. He couldn’t find anyone else to fill in. So guess where I’ll be the next two cool mornings.
Nursing homes are “not my ministry.” I’m not comfortable with the residents and I sense they are not comfortable with me. My wife is great at it and I’ll bring her along with me. I’ll even do the teaching that she wrote. On the first comfortable days of the fall, I won’t be comfortable.
Maybe that’s what renewal is all about. Maybe it’s not about being comfortable but about being challenged. Maybe the great weather isn’t a call to set back and relax with a hot bowl of gumbo, but to get up and do something that really needs to be done. The yard and the leaves and even the gumbo can wait. There are some folks who need maybe just one more time to know that Jesus loves them and the race might be almost over, but it’s not over yet. Maybe I need a reminder that 65 isn’t that old and that there is a lot more that I need to do.
Pray for me today that it’s a fabulous day after all.
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