Now that we have entered the autumnal season, everyone has begun focusing on the exciting fall things they have in store. We're obsessed with pumpkin spice lattes, decorating with mini pumpkins, and the fall sweaters and colors we now get to wear. We think of the leaves changing color and the splendor of the mountains of this time of year. We consider the cooler weather and consider it as a much needed reprieve from the harshness of summer's heat.

However, autumn also connotes a time of death, a time of ending, a season of finishing. The leaves and plants that once thrived during summer have now come to the end of their life. The heat, which once warmed our bodies and our landscape, has now turned cold and leads to the death of many living things. The bright, warm sunshine, which once heated the animals and plants in our ecosystem, is now replaced oftentimes by rain and cloudy days that hold a chill and dampness in the air. Autumn indicates the close proximity of the onset of winter, a time of death for nearly all plants and many animals in our world.

Autumn does still connote a time of beauty; it signals the rebirth that will occur once more after the old leaves and plants have died away. The old must die and pass away, so that in the spring the new will be able to be born and grow. The vibrant reds and yellows must fade to brown, so that the green may come once more. �

In the same way, we have been called to a spiritual death that will lead to our rebirth. Just like with fall, we often get caught up in the unimportant aspects of spirituality and do not dwell on its true meaning. We become concerned with attending the perfect church, dating the perfect Christian partner, reading our Bible for enough time each day, and we forget that ultimately we have been asked to die to ourselves daily. The kind of Christian music we listen to has as much to do with true Christianity as drinking a pumpkin spice latte has to do with the true meaning of fall. �Luke 9:23 says, "And he said to all, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.'"

Just as fall signals death and coming to the end of something, so we should consider this a time in our spiritual lives to die to ourselves and reach the end of ourselves. We must forfeit our lives, our sin, our independence, and learn to rely on Christ alone. Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

But what an amazing promise we have. If we do die to ourselves, if we are crucified with Christ, then we will receive a new life. We no longer live in the flesh, but by faith in Christ. Just as in the fall the old plants and leaves die in order to make way for new growth in the spring, we die to ourselves in order to make way for the new person Christ is cultivating in us. The sinful man and his desires must be put to death in order that the new man with the desires of the spirit may control our lives. So consider this time of death and rebirth as an opporunity to put to death the things of your flesh and embrace the things of the spirit. For just as the leaves of fall must die and pass away in order for the season to continue in their course, we cannot continue in our spiritual journey until we have truly crucified the desires of our flesh; it is a choice we must make daily, long after fall has ended.