Entering The Autumn of Your Life

AUTUMN

Life has seasons. If Summer is the season of glory, Winter the season of setbacks, Spring the season of growth, Autumn is the season adapting after the Summer. No what season you're in now, you will almost certainly experience an Autumn. The seasoned world traveller, Paul of Tarsus did-

2Tim. 4:6 ¶ For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

In continuing to prepare the script for the F.W. Boreham Documentary, I was confronted with his biographer, T. Howard Crago, describing his interaction with the great writer-preacher as taking place in the "Autumn" of Dr Boreham's life. It's a charming expression. As I move about our community now, I see the signs of Autumn. Leaves are changing dropping from the trees. Days are shorter. Temperatures are cooler. Apples are being harvested. The trees are transformed into rich earthy colours. There are delightful fogs in the morning. Some previously unseen flowers mysteriously blossom in Autumn. Life has its Autumn too. Most of us are not in Autumn...yet.

Grow in Spring. Tough out Winter. Enjoy Summer. Transition through Autumn from this temporary life into either an Eternal Summer of glory or an Eternal Winter.

Rom. 2:7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life;

"A man of sixty has entered into the autumn of life. Of all the seasons, autumn is the most idyllic. The leaves of the lime are tinged with amber; spots of lemon-colour appear upon the silver birch; and a soft suspicion of gold sweeps across the fern. As though beneath a wizard's wand, the hedgerows become bronze and purple and saffron; and the furze on the moorland sparkles in the early morning with dew-drenched webs of innumerable spiders...Yet of all the seasons, autumn has most often been misunderstood and misinterpreted." - Dr. F.W. Boreham, A WITCH'S BREWING, "On Being Sixty", page 17

Autumn is season of great dignity. Maturity is celebrated. The triumphs of Summer are remembered, celebrated. The challenges of Winter are put in perspective. Autumn is a time of great beauty.
If you are in a Winter, hold on Spring is coming. Winter is the time when fruit trees are pruned. Spring is when they flower and bud. Summer is when the fruit either grows or withers. Some people enter Summer and misplace their blessings and opportunities. Other people enter Summer having been pruned in Winter and prepared for the heat of Summer by ensuring that they have sufficient water flowing onto them. If you are in your Autumn, finish well. Just as the apple trees are emptied of their fruit, don't take the best of your potential to the grave unrealised. Don't leave your wisdom unharvested. Don't withhold your fruit from those who could benefit from it. But most importantly, prepare your soul for an Eternal Summer by making Jesus Christ the Ultimate Treasure of your life.

Ps. Andrew