Today marks the first day of the 2026 fall season. It’s a time when people take part in corn mazes, pumpkin farms, hay rides, and bonfires; a time when we down here in the south love our cozy clothes in the cool morning, but regret them by lunch when it’s back to feeling like summer for a few hours. Crockpot recipes for soups and stews start being shared and it’s hot chocolate and pumpkin spice all around.

But that’s not the “fall” I’m speaking of. On our walk through this life, we fall sometimes. It may be physically, emotionally, morally, or financially. Hard times happen, sometimes TO us and sometimes BECAUSE of us. No matter the situation, what has happened has happened and it cannot be undone. So we have to decide what to do with it.

Just like the changing of the seasons, we cannot undo the summer and go back to spring, when everything was new, exciting, and in bloom. We must keep moving forward!

In Luke 9:62 NLT, “But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”

This word “fit” is translated from a word that’s can also mean “proper” or “ready”. It doesn’t mean you’re never going to be fit, just that you’re not fit YET. Too often we ask God what He’s doing and where He’s taking us, but we’d be able to see better if we were looking forward and not back! Then we wonder why we trip and FALL!

There is a time where “falling back” and reflecting on the things of the past is good and right and helpful. We learn much this way and can see things from a different perspective. But this is so that we can do better/different in the future! We are not to dwell on the past! “Dwell” means to live and living in the past is not what we were meant to do!

God gave us eyes in the front of our heads so that we can see what’s ahead. Our necks turn so that we can see all around us with our peripheral vision, but we face forward. Fall is here. Winter is next. Then Spring. We move forward. Our lives will have ebbs and flows, times when we need to pull back a bit and reflect, times when we need to allow some things to fall away, to die off, so that God can bring us to a spring where things grow healthy and new.

What is God doing in your life this fall? What is He trying to get you to release, like the trees release their leaves, so they can rest and grow new again? Are you forward facing or are you stuck looking back? Spend some time with the Lord today and ask Him to show you yourself. You’ll be glad you did.