I have a love hate relationship with autumn. I love the beauty of the turning leaves. I hate the work of the falling leaves. So I’ll go with love. Autumn is a billion dollar season for tourism in Canada and the US because of the beauty of the leaves. But how quickly autumn passes! It is the perfect parable of all that fades. Yesterday the leaves were beautiful in colour. Tomorrow the rain will fall, the winds will blow, and the trees will be stripped and barren. Autumn reminds me of the value of life’s opportunities — their beauty, but also their brevity.
What if you knew there was an opportunity, a God-moment, coming where the choices you make will determine the course and momentum of your future?
2 Timothy 4:6-22 records the request of Paul to Timothy for him to “come before winter” and see him in prison. When winter set in the season for navigation closed in the Mediterranean and it was dangerous for ships to venture out to sea. Timothy had a window of opportunity. History does not record Timothy’s decision, however we do know that if Timothy had delayed until the spring Paul would have already been executed.
Some things must be done “before winter” or they will not be done at all.
There is urgency in opportunity.
There are doors of opportunity that open before us today, but if we do not take advantage of them, by springtime they may be forever shut.
What is it that God is calling you to do “before winter?”
Don’t delay.
You can’t wait forever to respond to things that are important.
