I was driving down Russell Road in late October and saw the trees with their leaves blazing with color. Nosingle tree seemed to have the same exact color pattern. Earlier in the summer they looked so uniform in their green canopies. Now they stood out from one another in orange, red, yellow, and light green displays. It appeared that they were showing off their true characteristics now that fall had arrived. It took the cold weather snap, the light frosts of the season to produce the color change, along with shorter days and reduced light.

Yes, many of you saw the same thing on Russell Road, and many enjoyed the trees, before you started calculating how much raking, bagging and burning was ahead of you. True beauty is often accompanied by labor and care.

There are so many people who wish they could be seen as spiritually whole people. Inside they feel torn up and unworthy to be considered spiritual and wonder how they will ever become people known for their faith. I have met people in the churches I have pastored who have made honest claims of faith in God through Jesus Christ, but they still struggle with the idea they are unworthyof God.

Some people feel unworthy because others have set too high a spiritual bar for normal people to measure up when they examine themselves. These people struggle withlegalism, a term we use to define faith that is only concerned with outward behavior. If you avoid places, people, things and actions considered ungodly, you obviously are not a believer with legalists. This attitude canreally hurt a person. The author Bernard Cornwall, well known for his novels set in the Napoleonic Wars, grew up in a very legalistic household. He had to sneak books into his bedroom because his faith group believed the Bible was the only book anyone should read. Today he is bitterlyopposed to any church or religion because of legalism.

Another system that causes people to feel unworthy is called antinomianism, a big word that means without law. This belief system claims no one is obligated to obey laws of ethics or morality since everything is predestined to happen. If it is meant to be, why try to do the right thing? Flip Wilson used o make fun of this on his TV show when he had his character, Geraldine, say, ‘‘The Devil made me do it.”

People who have grown up around this system often are very frustrated morally since they were not given guidelines to follow. It is hard to be spiritual when there is no path to follow.

I like to read the New Testament book, James, written by James, one of the brothers of Jesus. It is so practical, and there is a very clear message that even though God supplies our faith and salvation we still have a part to play in culture. He admits that there are pressures that bear onbelievers, but that those pressures result in deeper faith.

In chapter one of the book he writes, ‘‘Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” We are a lot like those trees along Russell Road. It takes pressure for them to display their fall beauty. We display our spiritual selves properly only after we persevere under pressure. Thatincludes pressure from other people in churches whodemand legalism or lawlessness from us. We are able to stand firm only because we love God.

I hope and pray that every time you rake up a yard of leaves you see them as a lesson in grace. Grace is what produces the graceful soul that has withstood the pressures of life.

— E-mail: brent.johnson@usmc.mil

Schedule of Services
All Services are held in the U.S. Marine Memorial Chapel unless otherwise stated. For more information, call theCommand Chaplain’s Office at 703-784-2131.

Roman Catholic
Sunday
9 a.m., 12 p.m. Mass
10:30 a.m. Religious Education
Monday – Friday
11:30 a.m. Mass

Protestant
9 a.m. Sunday School
10:30 a.m. Quantico Community Christian Worship

TBS Worship Schedule
Protestant Service 10 a.m.
O’Bannon Hall
3rd Deck Chapel

Islamic
Friday
Jumah Noon

Daily Dhuhr
1:15 p.m.

Jewish
For information call the Fort Belvoir Jewish Chaplain’sOffice at 703-806-4316 or Quantico’s Jewish Lay Leader, retired Lt. Col. Mike Haas, at 540-657-5658.