A new season

The season is subtly slipping from summer to autumn. There's a tinge of red and orange in the leaves of the tree outside my window, there's a sharpness in the evening air and tonight is the annual fireworks concert in Princes Street Gardens. This open air concert and pyrotechnic display marks the end of the weeks of artistic activity that draw thousands of tourists to Edinburgh each summer. Theatre, comedy, music, books, magic, film, dance, street performance all flourish over the months of July and August, and the start of September marks a change in the air for those of us who live and work in the city. There's a mixture of sadness and relief as the bagpipes are packed away and it becomes possible to get to your destination without tripping over a backpacker, juggler or flyerer. With one last burst of light in the sky life gets back to "normal'.
I wonder what that means. Normal is not about safe, mundane patterns of behaviour. Normal, for the disciple, is surely about seeking the light each day, about living in a radical, risky way where love flourishes in unexpected places. Normal is stepping out into new challenges and refusing to settle for well-trodden paths of the way things have aye been.
For me, this new season brings new challenges as I settle into my role in my workplace. There are priorities to set, new partnerships to form, funding to apply for and always the day to day challenge of how to manage people and projects in a way that glorifies God and builds his kingdom.
And this leads to a new set of questions. How do I find the balance of firmness and kindness as I manage people and situations? How do I carry out mundane tasks and jobs I find difficult in a way that demonstrates Christ's love? How much do I talk about Jesus to people who are paid to listen to me? How do I find expression of my own creativity when I am part of a business that has to make itself pay? How do I decide what to say 'no' to and remain faithful to my core calling?
What does it mean to be a creative evangelist in the place where God has led me for this season?