Taking Stock

The air is chill now. The leaves are almost gone.

This season moves in me, haunts me. When I lived in Minnesota, I dreaded the 4 o’clock sundowns. I hated driving home from work in the dark only to wake up and go to work in the dark. And Fall is the sundown of the year—the crepuscular season. It reminds me that I’m mortal. This hasn’t always been the case (that is, the Fall has not always reminded me of such things; of course I’ve always been mortal). When I was in my teens and twenties I was pretty sure I’d live forever. I was so excited about moving forward that I scarcely looked back. Now I’m a bit more trepid moving forward and much more inclined to take stock of where I’ve been. As you may have guessed, I’m a bit of a melancholy sort, so if I’m not careful I’ll only take stock of the regrets, the could’ve and should’ve beens. But if I’m in the right frame of mind, like Asaph when he entered the sanctuary (Psalm 73), I’ll see the Lord’s hand in it all. The mildewed leaves beneath my shoe-soles emit the sweet fragrance of faithfulness and present me with yet another season in which to trust myself to the warmth and light of Christ who leads me.

And as I take stock, I see that he has never failed to lead me. He has never left me in the dark or the cold. He has never failed to provide. And so I am thankful.

I thank God for the days of warmth and sunlight, the days of spring blooms and summer sun; and I thank him for these gray Autumn days, as challenging as they can be for me sometimes, for they bring me back to my knees, back to recognizing how much I need my Savior and how he has always met my needs.

Giving Tuesday Matching Grant!

December 2

Thanks for reading. Thanks for giving.

Yours,

Dan Daugherty, Executive Director