the humility of life

Maybe it's just this time of year...when warmth seems to be heading south and trees begin to shiver without leafy coats...but I am reminded that we are naturally humbled in the course of getting older.  When we are young and growing, our strength and abilities are also increasing and it is easy to become proud and self-assured.  But the humbling of life also enters as we face challenges of competition and then marriage and then children and we realize that there are questions that we don't have answers for and problems we can't solve, on our own.  At times we see ourselves fail and fall.  We can have an amazing capacity to continue in our own strength, however...and that leads to more falls and failures.  Then, as the children grow up and out, we begin to see our strength wane and our appearance fade and we are surely faced with the temporary nature of our own lives...at least here in the flesh.  But I am grateful for the humility of life because, whether we are young or old, the biggest lesson we need to learn is to come to the end of our "selves" and to the beginning of walking with our Savior.   As the leaves begin to fall...so we shall surely fall, in life and death.  So how wonderful it is to fall into the arms of the Lord even in these days.  It is good to be humbled by life... to humbly find Life in Him.

Psalm 92:¹² The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,

         He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
 ¹³ Those who are planted in the house of the LORD
         Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
 ¹⁴ They shall still bear fruit in old age;
         They shall be fresh and flourishing