As summer slowly gives way to autumn,
Crunchy leaves gather underfoot as they fall one by one from their home.
The bright hues of summer give way to natural muted tones.
Even the sunrises hold back their brilliance to be replaced by softer colours.
Everything appears as diminished and dying.
Nature surrenders herself effortlessly to this beautiful season of death.
For her though,
This autumn death is far from harrowing.
She yields to a new beauty that is revealed in the dying.
It is somehow softer,
Inviting.
This dying season stirs a desire to yield to the same within heart,
Soul and spirit.
The word death can be frightening,
To be avoided and resisted.
Its unfamiliarity scares us and so it is seen through a negative lens.
I read once that we tend to live as if our physical deaths are never actually going to happen.
How many I wonder find themselves nearing death in shock and fear as they didn't allow themselves to accept its arrival ahead of time.
No amount of avoiding or resisting will change the reality of death that comes to us all.
The more we choose to die before we die,
The more we soften towards a gradual acceptance of the inevitable without fear.
The falling leaves and brown colours invite a death,
A surrender.
What am I being invited to let go of?
What needs to die within me?
What no longer brings life?
What have I been holding onto that invites my grasp to loosen?
What space will these deaths create within me for the resurrection that will come in its place?
Death in any form creates space.
Letting go of a job that no longer fits,
A relationship ending,
Choosing to say no in order to have more time in the day,
All these come as small or big deaths.
In letting go we're joining autumn as she sheds her leaves to the floor allowing herself to become bare and vulnerable.
When we choose the unfamiliar path and let things die,
It does feel scary.
It invites a deeper trust,
A deeper surrender,
A willingness to find ourselves in a spacious place that has not yet been filled with the resurrection that is sure to follow.
Yet every time we choose to die,
We also choose life.
Jesus was clear that death has lost its sting.
His death led to a greater life.
He showed us the way.
He taught us how to die.
Take up your cross and follow me for whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
But whoever loses his life for me will save it.
As nature yields to death,
So she makes space for the new life that will surely follow.
The more we're willing to walk through death whilst we're alive,
The more life we will find.
By learning to die before we die,
When it comes to being near our last breath,
We're already prepared,
Accepting and welcoming of the eternal life to come.
We may need a little courage.
We may need a little help as we stay present to the vulnerability that choosing to die offers,
But God is always present with grace.
This autumn,
I invite you to die,
To let go and to make space for the new life that will come in time.
And as we come to stillness and quiet,
I'm going to offer a few questions.
What needs to die within me?
What within me no longer brings life?
What have I been holding onto that invites my grasp to loosen?
What have I been holding onto that invites my grasp to loosen?
What space will these deaths create within me for the resurrection that will come in its place?
Where am I being invited to trust as I wait patiently for new life?
May you receive great courage and grace as you let go.
And may you know hope deep within as you wait for the resurrection that will come in place of death.
Amen.
