FIRST DAY OF SUMMER

The first day of June and the unofficial first day of summer. As I awakened this morning I was greeted with the birds singing quietly and the gentle breeze coming through my open window carrying the refreshing aroma that accompanies the aftermath of a rainstorm. The temperature was a pleasant 69 degrees. I had slept fairly well (something not always true for me these days) and so I was feeling rested.

In one sense nothing has changed since the previous Tuesday which had been categorized as a spring morning. I will soon leave for Silver Springs Restaurant to share in the Early Men's Bible Study that I lead each Tuesday, and then I will go on to work. Since yesterday was a holiday, my in-box at the office will be a little bit deeper than usual. I have a premarital counseling appointment which is unusual for a Tuesday since this is also my sermon and study day when I generally isolate myself until mid-afternoon. Atypically I have no meetings this evening.

In another sense, today will be different. Perhaps it goes back to the sanctioned semi-responsibility and spontaneity that was summer for so many of us when we were children. We may still have had chores and an occasional ball practice to attend, but we didn't have to get up at a certain time and the dress code was merely wear clothes. But today I will feel a certain release of the intensity that so often describes adult life in America in these times. I will try to be more open to interruptions and more willing to be spontaneous, counting on "it's summer" to relieve my schedule dominated compulsiveness. I will linger in the church's prayer garden to enjoy its beauty and speak comfortably with my Lord. I will sit on my porch with a good book more often rather than cocoon inside in front of the television. I will see more of my neighbors and hopefully make an attempt to converse with them.

A change of seasons, especially the first day of summer, affords us an opportunity to refocus and recalibrate. The first day of summer allows us to introduce some new dimensions into our lives.
And as these new dimensions change us for the better, perhaps they will make the arrival of fall a more welcomed time and a time of eager expectation.

Are you open to your summer being used by God as a season of refreshing? "To everything there is a season," the Bible reminds us. Summer should not resemble winter or else your life has become to complicated and too inflexible. May the first days of summer allow you to take inventory of your truest priorities and get into a new rhythm of life.

And let God, the Author of Life, help you do your "vacation" planning.