All the summer lovers might want to skip this one. This is your trigger alert: I’m ready for fall.

I don’t want fall tomorrow. That would be weird (and very unseasonal). But I do want fall to start on September 21. And I mean right on September 21. Not a day late, do you hear?

I’ve enjoyed my two-week trial subscription to summer, but I don’t think I’ll keep it, thank you very much. I’ve already sweated a gallon and it’s not even to the really hot part of summer. Plus, I think I’ve already been bitten and stung more than I like — and for me, once is enough.

There are so many things I love that come with fall. Two of my favorite holidays (plus Christmas, even though it’s technically in winter but might as well be fall since true winter doesn’t arrive in Tennessee until mid-January).

But I can live with summer. I figure all the hot sticky weather will help me learn to appreciate the cooler crisp temperatures of autumn more. Plus, I can wear a shirt all day without having to peel it off at the end of the day.

I am thankful God made four seasons. I’m trying to learn to love them all, though both winter and summer try my patience at times. I understand that each season plays a part in the cycle of life of birth and death, decay and renewal.

But fall also has pumpkin spice and flannel. Those are two of my favorites. So there’s that.

If you let it, all the bad news coming from everywhere can be overwhelming. If you choose to get your information from the news outlet of your choice, you will think that the whole world is headed to hell in a hand-basket.

But there’s a freedom that comes when you learn to let go of what you can’t control. There’s a beauty that comes from surrendering what you were never meant to bear in the first place. It never was your job to fix every wrong and to right every injustice. That has always been God’s job.

Your job is to trust and obey. Part of that obedience and trust comes in leaving to God what belongs to God and not to you. If you try to take on the weight of the world and all its myriad problems, it will crush you. But if you leave it in the nail-scarred hands, it will free you.

It also helps to know that while the middle of the story looks bad, the end of the story has never been in doubt. You can look to the last pages of the Bible to see that. There will be no more wars or rumors of war. No more death or disease. No more hatred and animosity.

There’s a wedding and a feast coming. And you’re invited. And, as C. S. Lewis put it in the last Narnia book, The Last Battle, this life will have only been the preface to the real story of heaven and beyond, where each chapter is better than the one before and where the story has a happy ending that never truly ends.

“Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen” (The Book of Common Prayer).

So much of this life is chaotic and unpredictable. So many of us wake up not knowing what the day will bring, hoping it will be good but fearing the worst. Things can change so very suddenly.

I’m thankful for a changeless God who remains the same through all our days. I don’t have to wonder if the God of tomorrow will be as good to be as the God of today. I know that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

That’s a comfort in these times where it seems almost nothing is guaranteed beyond today. So much of what I thought would last hasn’t. So many of the people I’ve grown accustomed to have gone away — either moved away or passed away.

But God is just as faithful as He was in the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He’s just as faithful as He will be 1000 years from now. That’s the reason I can lay my head on my pillow at night and rest.

I’ve always heard the difference between mercy and grace explained this way. Mercy is not getting what you deserve, while grace is getting what you don’t deserve. I also think that these two words can be used interchangeably. I’m thankful for both.

Every single day, I experience both grace and mercy. I end up not getting what I deserve and getting what I don’t deserve. I see a lot of people who throw around terms like karma on social media. In every case, that karma is usually for someone else.

But I’ve been around long enough to know that I don’t want what’s coming to me. I don’t want to get what I’ve earned and what I deserve. I can’t very well wish for karma for someone else and grace for me. That’s not how it works.

I know what grace and mercy look like. I know what grace and mercy feel like. I know they’re both part of the package deal that comes with salvation. That’s why I want mercy and grace for everyone I meet. Not because they deserve it. The very nature of grace and mercy is that they’re undeserved and not based on merit. In fact, a good definition for grace is unmerited favor.

Grace and mercy are two of my favorite words because I’m a living example of both lived out every day of my life. That amazing grace that brought me here thus far will lead me home one day and will be with me every step of the journey until then.

I love the idea of the great exchange. God in Jesus took our place by taking our punishment, so we could receive His righteousness and everything that belongs to Him. The one who knew no sin became sin for me, that I might be made righteous and holy — a saint.

Saints aren’t special people who are more holy and righteous than the rest of us. Saints are simply people who have experienced the goodness of God in a way that they couldn’t stay who they were. In fact, all those who have put their trust in Jesus are saints because of the imputed righteousness that is ours through Jesus.

Sometimes, I forget. I think about all that I am not and wish I could be. Sometimes, it’s easy to get caught up in comparing myself with others and become discouraged. But when I remember what Jesus did for me — dying on the cross — and still does for me — ever living to intercede for me, then I realized that I am blessed.

That’s really what we need. We need to preach the gospel to ourselves every single day, or we forget and start to become bitter and entitled. We need to remember that we were sinners, but now we’re saints because of Jesus. Every other name that we give ourselves is a lie from the enemy, but what Jesus says is what’s true.

This past Sunday, I showed up at my church to volunteer as a tech and to run all the worship slides. When I arrived, the tech director over all our campuses had a request. Would I be willing to go over to our Woodbine campus and fill in during their service?

It took me all of about two seconds to say yes. I love the Woodbine campus. One of my favorite people, Hunter Melton, is the campus and teaching pastor there. Plus, I know a few of the members. I love how God is at work in that community through that small but growing band of believers.

I was blessed that day. Hunter brought the Word with authority. I got to see some people I hadn’t seen in about a year since the last time I visited that campus. The new worship pastor, Cody Clark, was amazing and the songs were what I needed.

I suppose I could have declined the request, but I would have missed out on that blessing. Sometimes, there’s a special kind of joy that only comes from obedience and from being smack dab in the center of God’s will. That was me that day.

I look forward to being back at my own church this coming Sunday, but I’m praying for Woodbine, as well as all the other campuses, because God is doing something special in each place. God, bring Your holy revival to the city of Nashville, and let it begin in the hearts of your people as they earnestly seek Your face and surrender to Your will, whatever that may be. Amen.

That’s one thing I’ve learned over the years. Most of the time, I don’t know what to pray for. I can’t tell you how many times I’d ask God for something and get a no, only to look back later and be thankful He didn’t give me what I asked for.

Sometimes, God gives me what I didn’t ask for. In hindsight, I would have asked for that very thing had I known then what God knows.

I heard that God will typically answer more prayers with no than yes. I don’t know yet if I believe that or not, but it does make sense in a way. A lot of what we ask God for would destroy us if we got it when we asked for it. Sometimes, we ask for too little because we don’t see what God sees. Sometimes, I confess that I am only thinking of me and my little world while God is thinking of the whole universe and everyone in it.

More and more, I think the best way to pray is to leave it in God’s hands and simply pray as Jesus did when He prayed Thy will be done. That’s the best way.