A fall carriage ride with family in North Carolina!

According to the calender, fall is upon us. However, the weather in Tulsa does not reflect that. Somehow, we have been caught in a jet stream that keeps bringing hot summer weather.

I imagine many people live here because they like it like that. I prefer the change of seasons. I am ready for cooler temperatures. For the clouds of the sky to look like October, ushering in smells of tailgating and the cheers from football stadiums. For changing leaf color and crisp nights spent with friends around crackling fires to replace sounds of children leaping into warm summer pools.

Autumn will always remind me of family traditions. The cooler temperatures bring the promise of upcoming dates with time spent together celebrating. I seem to spend a great deal of time in anticipation, and very little in actual enjoyment. I realize that the anticipation is part of the romance of it. I need to be better at living in the moment.

I am one who too often gets caught up in the circumstances surrounding the event and don't always enjoy it like I should. It's not intentional. It really happens without much thought.

I can still remember many family gatherings that include a great deal of laughter, food, game-playing, etc. Too often, though, I watch from the sidelines. I tend to be too competitive, so I don't readily enter into games. You would think I would be more disciplined at my age, but I truly have to work hard at it. Not letting the "I wanna win" attitude prevail and overwhelm the other players, takes serious effort on my part.

I thoroughly enjoy being involved in these times. I just know I need to plug into them even more than I do.

Moving across the country allows you to see what others do in the way of tradition. On occasion, we get invited to the family gatherings of new friends. We get some new ideas that way. We also see some "don't try this at home," stuff. Anyway, the charm and draw of looking to these times, arrives on the currents of changing seasons.

When the seasons don't seem to want to change, everything feels a little out of step. I cannot believe it is nearly mid-October. Someone needs to call the weathermen of "Green Country," Oklahoma and tell them that it's time to move on. We gotta stop living in the by-gone days of summer. A new thing is coming, only we seem to not be letting it!

We tend to do the same thing in our walk with Christ. We have a tendency to meditate more on past accomplishments in the Name of Jesus, than to truly seek Him and what He has for us in this moment. Before long, we are no longer walking in His ways, but remembering days when we did and seeming clueless how to get back on that trail.

He calls us to seasons of coming up to Him and being with Him. He desires that we let the past be the past, the future reside aloft, and that we live in the moment with Him. The better we get at doing this, the more real we are to other people. They see Christ in us as we are walking in His immediate presence.

Family traditions are great and we all will continue to look forward to those times. We simply cannot allow the notions of those moments to supersede our present in Christ. The seasons will change, but we will enjoy them more if we are walking with Him!

dad