Leaves !! what do YOU think?

I can look out our french doors and catch a glimpse of a beautiful view of Mt. Nittany (if you ever watch a Penn State football game they often show it at some point during the telecast).  This time of year it starts to change to all the various fall colors and so its a real blessing to have a ringside seat to such a wonderful scene unfolding.  At the same time another perspective is taking shape:  all OUR tree’s leaves are starting to fall and we have, one of, if not THE biggest piles of leaves on our street after the raking is done !  Two different people could come away with two different mindsets here: ahhh, what a gorgeous view or uggh what a pain !!

Isn’t this often what we face in life?  We tend to have two choices when it comes to things as to how we think on a matter, we can get bitter or we can get better, we can be negative or positive, godly or grumbling !   I have a book in my library dealing with depression that speaks of happiness basically being a choice, so true !

Elijah was a great prophet but right after  resounding success against Satan and his prophets he became so down due to how he chose to respond to Jezebel’s threats against him.  God’s messenger said to him, “Arise and eat because the journey is too great for thee.” (1Kgs.19:7). And like Elijah, so is our life’s trek, it’s too much to handle apart from God’s grace, so we need His nourishment and perspective too.  Elijah started to complain that, “I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant. . . ” (v10).  Sounds eerily familiar in our day how people have abandoned God’s Word doesn’t it?     But Elijah slipped into self-pity and his perception became very warped as he muttered, “. . . and I, I ONLY, am left; and they seek my life to take it away !”   He was later corrected with the facts as God’s message was: “Yet I have left Me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.” (v18).

Yes, there is a lot of evil in our day, there are many bent on destroying the faith we hold so dear.   Sin abounds, leaves need to be raked . . . but there is a beautiful view that surpasses all the work that needs to be done and lifts our spirits from the dim to the truly bright, we have a Savior Who is more incredible that our finite minds can fathom, there is a future free from pain and heartache, there are blessings untold that await us as saved people that eclipse the burdens of this old world by far !!  So what has your mind been fixating on lately? Have you been worrying? Thinking ill of someone?  Embittered?   Just plain ticked about something you can’t seem to shake?  Wondering how it will all get done?  Or have you been scanning the horizon and contemplating the majesty of God?  Looking at things from His point of view.   Which will you choose to focus on today?!