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Tony Campolo, who writes as prolifically as anyone (except maybe Phillip Roth and some Romance Novelists), and a couple of years ago he wrote a book after surveying a large number of people who were over 100 years old. He had three main points after surveying them: they wished they had risked more, spent more energy to leave a legacy, and reflected more.
I have been praying and thinking about growing stronger, mainly in the area of reflecting (the other two I don't struggle with as much).
This year I have been struck over and over and over by the Fall. My street curves and the colors are wonderful (and I have a thing for curvy streets).
I have a good friend who was recently admitted to the hospital for grief and anxiety, I have friends who have been wounded deeply by their church and cannot see straight because of it, I'm beginning my first sermon series ever (in front of a church on a Sunday morning)... And, I am still struck by Autumn.
Thoughts? Are you better at reflecting when your life is chaos? Does the Fall touch something deep in your soul?
9 comments:
Robbie and I drove home down interstate 55 last weekend. We commented on the beautiful leaves at least 20 times. I was able to ride horses with my Dad on Sunday afternoon -- I kept trying to "breathe Fall in" so that I could somehow keep it with me.
If we are talking about foliage, does that mean that we are getting old?
I thought i was looking at my own blog, because I posted this picture of Autumn, too!!!
I would like to come hear you preach. Maybe I will be able to make it! You are going to do great.
I feel like I reflect TOO much. Is that possible? I feel like I am too cerebral and spend too much time hypothesizing and not enough time living my life, enjoying my life, getting outside my own head...
For me there is one moment at the beginning of fall where I will be walking outside and I will be overcome with mixed emotions of sadness, happiness, longing and nostalgia. As silly as this may sound it always has something to do with the wind hitting my face, the sound of leaves and the stillness.
Fall makes me remember my childhood and as I am not a child anymore it makes me feel old. That feeling is surprising to me because I hate getting older but I love the fall in spite of that. I loved that you brought this up because I once tried to describe my feelings to a friend and she didn't know what I was talking about and I think her exact response was, “You’re so weird! What are you talking about?” haha. It is nice to see that others feel something too.
Thanks!
Elisa stole my answers.
I sometimes wish I was less reflective, but I am not sure it is the same kind of reflective.
Autumn looks different with glasses.
I like that the beauty that was always underneath comes out when parts that hid it start to die.
I am much better at reflecting when my life is in chaos, and then I usually reflect too much to the point where I drive myself half crazy and can't 'get out of my head' as someone else commented. It's funny that you brought this issue up, because things have been going surprisingly well for me lately and I have recently become aware that I need to take more time to reflect.
I truly loved your sermon this week Matt. My brother, who has been deeply wrestling with his faith for a long time now, also enjoyed it. Thank you, and good luck with your future messages.
i let my fear of winter get in the way of my enjoyment of fall... i stop enjoying the color & smell & sound of autumn because i dread the months of gray & wet & dreary. maybe i need to find something attractive about winter?
You sound like my wife...
I don't know how often you read your comments but if you do, I just wanted to say "What's up?" or "Ca va?", as I am now living in France. But, I hope things are going well for you (and it looks like they are). Your daughter is adorable and I hope that sometime when I get back to the states I can meet up with you and maybe get to meet your daughter. Where are you in school? At Covenant? I heard your refernce school but I hadn't seen you in so long, I didn't know what school that was!
(I changed my name and then it didn't give you a link to where you could contact me so I wont change my name this time).
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