Welcome Summer!

 â€œAlways winter but never Christmas†is how C.S. Lewis depicts sin’s grip on fallen Narnia.  I’m convinced that heaven is “always summer and always Christmasâ€.  Summer’s the favorite season in our house by a landslide, no runners up!   Liz and I love the house with kids home and activity buzzing all around us. 

Here’s a few things I need to remind myself about the opportunity summer brings:

1.  Embrace leisure.

God made you  for patterns of labor and leisure, work and rest.  When you  have the right balance, productive work is immensely satisfying.  But you need a time of leisure to enjoy the work.  We take vacation seriously, budget money for it, and plan it a year in advance.  Someone once told me of a church member who rebuked their pastor for taking a vacation by saying “the devil doesn’t take a vacation, how can you take one?† The pastor responded, “I never considered the devil to be my role model.â€

Before there was sin there was rest.  How much more do you  need wholesome and replenishing rest now? Jesus tells me  to take a vacation not because I deserve it, but because I’ll be an even worse mess as a pastor, father, and general image-bearer of God if I don’t.  

2. Play Hard. There’s a silly argument that pits quality time vs. quantity time.  You can’t really have one without the other. 

David Livingstone, the trailblazing missionary to Africa reflected on his entire missionary career in his journal, “I often ponder my missionary career and in the  consideration of  my   many imperfections not a single pang of regret arises in view of my conduct except I did not devote a special portion of time to play with my children.  Generally, I was so exhausted by evening there was no energy for fun left.  My children soon sprang up and left me conscious I had none to play with.†The average parent spends less than 20 minutes on Christmas Day playing with their children.  I’m convinced that much of this is due to self-absorption.  Get over your pre-occupation with self through the far superior privilege of becoming pre-occupied with having fun with others. 

I would add that children are not the only ones to play with .  I enjoy playing with my wife, in fact that's my favorite for all sorts of reasons. I won't go into here... but also friends, neighbors, older children.  What are hobbies but play dressed up in acceptable ways?  Who fishes for food except commercial fishermen?  We call it sport or hobby, but it's play...

3. Fast from Media.  You’ve heard of food fasts? Try a media fast.  The world will continue on without your following it.  For the summer I’m going to focus my news reading on the sports and comics.  Like H.L. Mencken said, that’s the only part of the newspaper that’s true anyway.  Actually, what Mencken said was that every part of the newspaper is true, except those parts that deal with something that you have firsthand knowledge about....

Remember those boom boxes of the 80’s that youth would carry on their shoulders?  They’ve been replaced with Ipods and earphones isolating people into their own little worlds.  While earphones are sometimes a provision straight from heaven, don’t let them lock you or other family members into a solitary pseudo-world.  I’ve found it useful to tune out the news radio and play Bible tapes that expose me to large swaths of scripture. Listening to the Bible read aloud  purifies my mind like nothing else.  Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.â€

4.   Seize Summertime Worship.  The rhythm of  rest is incomplete without worship.  Sunday comes 52 times a year, and so should you unless providentially hindered. If you’re in another town, find the church most likely to edify you and bring me back one of their programs!

 Summer affords many other opportunities for worship.  My grandfather was a very hard working farmer.  One time he told me how he would sometimes quiet his Allis-Chalmers tractor in the midst of a field and spend time with God in prayer.  Seize some of those moments and turn them into prayer and worship. 

You can make it Christmas every day of summer.  Embrace leisure, play hard, fast from media, and seize opportunities to worship.