Gray makes colorful

I don't know about you, but Autumn is one of my favorite times of the year! People start getting excited about the impending Holidays, football starts, baseball starts to matter, kids are in school again, the nights get cold, fireplaces start being used, you can see your breath, frost blankets the ground, it get's brighter earlier (I freakin love mornings), and BEAuty is everywhere!

I am such a huge fan of nature's beauty! I mean, who isn't really?! I have grown particularly fond of fall. The leaves changing into magnificent colors you can't really recreate remind me of life's goodness, challenge me to see Beauty more, and just make me thankful.
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Meredy and I were talking yesterday about life and just how good God is to us. This year has been a pretty incredible year for our family. There have been so many blessings that He has rained down on us, it's humbling to even reminisce. The crazy thing though is that this year has had some decent-sized trials as well. I'll spare the details for actually personal conversations, but it's fair to say that this year has been one blessing from the Lord after another.

It's odd that I would even be surprised to notice that He has turned what seemed to be bad into something great! In so many ways, He has done and continues to do this in my life. God means good! He is good! All is grace! All is good! But I'm not totally there all the time. Often, it's tough for me to see all as grace, especially when I'm right in the thick of it. I'm sure hoping I'm not alone in this.

Mere and I's conversation continued and we talked about what it means that God has been so good to us this year. Does it mean that a huge trial awaits us in the next year? Does it mean that we are being rewarded for being faithful? Does it mean nothing? Does it mean that God just wants to be good to us because He's God and He can do what He wants?

We didn't find an answer!
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I was playing in the leaves today with the Fin man and I got to thinking/remembering back to 2nd grade science class. I remember learning about why leaves were green in the summer and changed colors in the fall. The chlorine (or some crazy chlor word that I refuse to look up because it takes away from not only the story but the joke that I've now ruined by making you read this obnoxiously long parenthetical thought) that is produced in the leaves which makes them bright green comes from the sun. When the sun stops shining as bright and kinda distances herself from the trees, the leaves stop producing the green-making-chlor-chemical-thing. You would think that this would be a bad thing. I mean the sun is a good thing and it produces so much life; so...if the sun is gone then the good ceases to be around and the life starts to die...right?

Well, I guess that is sort of how it works. But, if you're anything like me or the Designer who set it all up this way, you see it as doing the opposite! The leaves get prettier after the goodness starts to fade.

 Mere and I didn't come up with an answer to the "why has this year been so good?"
question, but we did come up with a response. God has been so good to you Jake and Meredith! Our response-thankfulness!!

I have been learning so freaking much about thankfulness this year. Not just being thankful in the ways I've always been told to be, but really being thankful-for EVERYTHING.

I recently read Ann Voskamp's popular book 1000 Gifts, and it was extremely challenging to me. One thing that she says over an over in her book is that "eucharisteo (thankfulness) precedes the miracle." What I took away from the book was that living in joy-constant, unfiltered, overwhelming joy, is a miracle and that the only way to get this miracle is by choosing thankfulness.
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I like to think that the leaves turn incredible colors and create unrepeatable and continuously compounding beauty because they're so thankful to God for all the sunlight they got all summer long! This time with Autumn's colors-thankfulness precedes the miracle!

  I don't know about you, but I can sure learn a lot from leaves!

The way up

Humility-a means to an end?

Go low to get high? A paradoxical idea-one of the Word's many.

Truly going low, however, cannot should not be mistaken for merely pretending to be low in an effort to seem high (Oh, I'm way too familiar with this mask). The difference between the two lies in relationship. We only truly go low when we meet someone. This particular person knows the journey from high to low and back to High. He knows the way and wants to show us. We absolutely play a role in our journey to greatness, fullness, and the heights-we are to humble ourselves. It's simple really...When we gain proper perspective-see ourselves as we really are and He as He really is, we become humble. True reflections (honest mirrors) give us the perspective that opens doors of pride leading us somewhere...somewhere incredible.


The door swings open-stairs. But the door said "To the heights." These stairs go down though. I decide to go anyways. As I get further down the stairs it gets darker-different. I can hardly see him, more his silhouette, when I hear him say, "Welcome Jake, I've been waiting." His voice seems familiar yet unknown. "For me?" I think. "Who is this man?" We talk for awhile; I get to know him, talk more, and go even lower. "More stairs? Where are we going?" I wonder but don't ask. 

Time slips away. I am captivated by this man. He's fascinating, funny, friendly, and familiar. I like love being with him. It's like waking from a dream and not being able to distinguish fiction from reality-these moments. From the time I opened the door, walked down stairs, met him, walked down more stairs, and talked with him,  I've somehow forgot what, or even that, I left.

But then...
he pulls back curtains, raises blinds, and shows me. The Viewpoint! 

Light floods the room, illuminating His face. We look together out the window and see beauty like never before. I've glimpsed pieces of this skyline before; haven't I?  "How did He do this?" I remember- I had a "higher" perch before; I gave up so much to come down those stairs; I left some incredible safety and comfort behind. 

It's weird though because as soon as I met Him, I began to forget everything from upstairs. I loved getting to know Him, seeing His story. I lost track of time, my desires changed, my memories faded, and my focus shifted. I found that I didn't care about anything but that moment with Him-He's so great! Then...it happened; He showed me where we'd come. Our viewpoint, now fully lit, showed me Him and revealed to me the Beauty, the landscape, and skyline I'd merely glimpsed before. A viewpoint more incredible than my dreams dared tread to.

I remember. I see it clearly now! I was upstairs. I'd thought I had it all-I had nothing without Him. I'd thought I'd seen beauty-I'd barely glimpsed even a shard of it. I'd thought I was happy-I knew nothing of Joy. I'd though I was high-I hadn't even left the ground. But now...I'll never forget!! Never!