Crumbling into place

Personal Photo: 2021 "Strawberries I harvested from plants I helped grow"

Are you ready for fall yet? I think this was the first full-blown week of home decor sections bursting into autumn colors and abandoning the patriotic tank tops and sunscreen. Being an August baby, I have spent my entire life clinging to the very beginning and end of each summer, relentlessly trying to make it last longer. Summertime was for swimming, sunshine, and no homework, so no wonder I loved every second of it. With the end of summer comes the beginning of school, harvest season, sweaters, and football, which other than school, are all things that are worth looking forward to. However, I also think that sometimes the end of summer can feel a bit overwhelming to us. Ending another season also means change, encourages a new set of responsibilities, and can be a very stressful time of year.

I think each season comes with its own explorations of stress and growth, but the shift from warmer days to cooler ones can really impact our moods. Sometimes pumpkin spice and Halloween candy just don't make the cut. My point in explaining the seasonal mood change is to highlight how we can sometimes trip up on circumstances in our lives. Sometimes it's as simple as the season shifting. Other times it can be large upheavals like moving, jobs changing, or the feeling of something being off in one of our favorite relationships. I think as humans we usually try to stick to our comfort zones, but the number of times we need to adjust, check in with ourselves, and work to stay positive in times of change is quite staggering.

Change. Change is a constant for us. We change, we change others, our lives change. Some of it we have control over and some of it we don't. Regardless, I think we have all come to accept the fact that most everything shifts over time. When we think of our relationship with God, we can all agree that as we change, our relationship with Him changes also. We learn more, we grow, we fall away and we come back, and so much more during our walk with Christ. Throughout all of this, the one truly steady thing for us is God. Pslam 36:7 reminds us "How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings." God never leaves, never falls away, never stops loving us. He is the one part in our ever-changing lives that remains constant and remains present, even as we navigate different parts.

I think that focusing on God's unchanging love is absolutely a valuable and important blessing to dwell on, but for this particular article, I want to focus on how we, as believers, can use His love as a lens for us to be able to see and seek out more of His constants. Two weeks ago, Simon Cowell, a judge on America's Got Talent, ranked his top three golden buzzer moments. Most of us probably know what I mean by 'golden buzzer' moments, even if we are not avid AGT watchers, but for those who do not know, the contestants who try out for AGT can either go on to the next round if the judges liked their act or they can go home. On the judges' table is a gold button, and if a judge thinks an act is particularly special, they can push the golden buzzer and send the contestant all the way to the semi-finals, without them having to go through the other rounds. Simon Cowell's number one golden buzzer moment was for a contestant named Jane, who had terminal cancer. She sang a song that she wrote, and Simon pressed the golden buzzer for her act, sending her to the semi-finals. Unfortunately, she was too sick to be able to compete at the semi-finals, but one of her statements was one that I think we can all admire. Jane, after telling the judges about her illness, told them that "You can't wait until life isn't hard to be happy." Jane's simple statement stood out like a ray of sunshine. She was dealt such a heavy hand, a difficult thing to wrap her head around and make peace with, but she showed up with grace and helped point out something that I think we often miss.

I started out this article talking about how often things change and how we have to come to terms with that never-ending change in our lives. In our happy times, we know there will be hard times to come, but I think when we have hard times, it can be really difficult to remember we will have better times ahead. It is so easy to soak ourselves in the overwhelming nature of our fast-paced lives, that we can often miss the bubbles of joy that are constantly present around us. Tracy Lawrence's line in Easy as Our Blessings hits home: "It'd be nice if we'd forget our troubles as easy as our blessings." We focus so intently on the difficult pieces, the challenging aspects, the stressful experiences, the things we can't control or do not like, that we can easily dismiss the opportunities to see things through the lens of God's love and look for the constant shower of blessings that He provides.

Life is hard for a multitude of reasons, but one of the most challenging aspects of it is the change. We can't ever get into a routine, get into a rhythm when our lives are upended, get used to the unknowns that we are aware of coming. Change is a main contributor to making life difficult, even though change can often be a positive thing. I think about Jane and how her life changed, how she changed others, and how change wreaked havoc on her time here on Earth. My earlier statement is still true: God's love is constant. God's love applies to Jane as well as it does to the rest of us. We, during our times of change (both good and bad) can see how God can use our crippling sinful flesh to put us back together and bring us peace. God might feel like a larger presence to us when we are struggling or when we go to Him in times of need, but the fact of the matter is that God loves us unconditionally all the time. Even when we feel like we have it all together, He is still there for us and with us. He does not love us quietly, but rather He loves us whole-heartedly and boldly. He shows His love for us all of the time. 1 John 4:16 tells us "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them" Just like life is always going to change and it is always going to be hard for one reason or another, we can rely on God's lens of love to bring us peace and help us find happiness, regardless of the circumstances.

My mom and dad, on their way to Tennessee, saw a church marquee that read "God brings you peace when you fall to pieces." I love the marquee sign that my parents saw for numerous reasons, but the main one is that I truly think we are always falling to pieces, aren't we? We can't ever escape our sinful nature, our failures, and our pride. Truly, we need God and His love all the time, which makes the marquee more special. It is the same concept as life always being hard. We are always falling to pieces because of life being hard. This is why I like the marquee so much. It is saying that God can always bring us peace. He can always bring us joy and happiness, amidst the difficulties. When we apply Jane's advice to our relationship with God along with our viewpoint on our circumstances, we can really transform our perspective on life and its changes.

I mentioned God's unconditional love being present all around us, and I want to explore the ways in which we can look for it. When we stop waiting for life to slow down before we pray, stop waiting for us to be less sinful before coming to His altar, stop waiting for things to get easier before finding joy in His blessings, we have a brilliant opportunity to see His love through everything. Psalm 136:26 tells us to "Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever." I consider how I see His love in my life: My outstanding husband, my fantastic family, my health, my eagerness to learn, the butterflies that have been floating around the sky, the ability to work, my two dogs, and so much more. I can see it through the feeling of sunshine on my face, the growth of my houseplants, the colors in the sunset, the smell of fresh-cut grass, the warmth of my tea in the morning, the strawberries I harvested from plants I helped grow. God's love for me is everywhere, in everything I enjoy and everything I do. I want to always be looking for more of His constant expressions of love in my life. It brings me peace, it slows my busy schedule, and it calls me closer to Him.

God shows His love in so many different ways; He can bring it through a stranger, through little things that you take the time to appreciate, through a loved one that reaches out. He will always be finding ways to demonstrate His love to us and if we stop focusing so much on our troubles, we will have more time and chances to adore the blessings He graciously gives us through His love. Being able to seek out the ways in which God loves us will help us face the inconsistencies we encounter here on Earth. With all of the ebbs and flows that we eventually have to navigate, being able to root ourselves in the Father's love helps us find peace through it all. The Lord reminds us in Isaiah 54:10 that "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed." Life is hard. Life will continue to be hard for different reasons and continuous unknowns. However, the consistency of God's love puts our brokenness back together just as He intended.

Truly, because God's love for us is constant, we can teach ourselves to look for new ways that He expresses it to us. With every season ending and new one beginning, it is an opportunity to shift the perspective of life's difficulties and choose happiness and peace. These two things--happiness and peace--go hand in hand and when we stop waiting for life to not be hard, we can humble ourselves before God to see His constant showering of love all around us.