Fall: The Season, The Danger

            I am taking a conversational spanish class right now at the local community college.  I am taking it for one main purpose:  to learn something new.  Learning a new language is forcing me to do something I usually do not do very often, and that is think about the meaning of words.    With Labor Day behind us,   I find myself thinking about an English word that enters our vocabulary this time of year.   That English word is Fall, one of the four seasons of the year.  Some prefer to use the word Autumn, but I prefer Fall. 

            The season of  Fall is a beautiful time of year.     Just saying the word brings a smile to my face and my heart, for it is the time of year when I fell in love with my beautiful wife and it is the time when I fell in love with a Savior who loved me before I ever knew Him-  Christ Jesus.    The season of Fall brings pleasant thoughts of  autumn colors, mountain trips,  cooler temperatures,  church barbecues,  coastal fishing trips,  blooming mums,  pumpkin carvings, children in costume, and pumpkin pie. 

            While the season of Fall brings smiles and pleasant thoughts, a fall is generally not a good thing.    It is not good when we hear of friends and family who fall and suffer the consequences of surgery, hospitalization, and rehab.    Likewise,  it is not good when a driving motorist falls asleep behind the steering wheel.     In I Corinthians 10:12,  the apostle Paul cautions brothers and sisters in Christ against another kind of fall, and that is falling to the dangers of temptation.   Read this verse from I Corinthians 10:12 which says:

¹² Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing securely should watch out so he doesn’t fall.

            None of us are free from the temptation to fall away from being the people Christ called us to be.  If Peter succumbed to temptation,  why would we think it would be immune to the possibility?     When my children were young and learning to walk,  it seemed to me that they were less likely to fall when they stayed closed to me.    If we can each stay close to Christ,  we are certainly less likely to fall to temptation.  Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall 

Prayer:  Lord and God,   draw us closer to you that we might not succumb to the temptations that lurk nearby.  When we do fall,  lift us up with your grace and forgiveness;  through Christ our Lord.  Amen.