Summer Reverie
It is hot! Welcome to summertime. In this kind of temperature, you are able to be biblical. “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread…” (Genesis 3:19). College kids are home for the summer, kids are (as a rule) out for summer break. Young adults contemplate their future. This is often a time of re-evaluation and introspection for all ages. As the days heat up and the nights swelter, you’ll find it is:
I. A Good Time to Think
There is a funny line that comes from a Three Stooges episode; Curly is told to “think, just think….” His reply was a classic, “I’m trying but nothing is happening.” The truth is, with the least amount of effort, thoughts will come to our minds. The Psalmist said, “My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned…” (Psalm 39:3).
It is a good time to muse (to ponder) over how you will spend your days. “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Is there a goal that you set for yourself that is covered in proverbial “moth balls.” Do you still want to do it? Is it a ministry? Something that will benefit the family? Your church? Your community? There is no better time than now!
Thinking starts a mind fire. For Thomas Edison, it blazed into inventions that changed and, in the case of the light bulb, brought light to men’s darkness. D. L. Moody overheard a dedicated Christian servant say while he was dying, “It is yet to be seen what God can do with one man, wholly dedicated to God.” Moody, as a young man said, “By the grace of God, I’ll be that man!” In his ministry over two million people professed a saving knowledge of Christ. The remarkable follow up to this remarkable life is that when he came to the end of his life, he said the same thing. So maybe there is someone reading this that would say, “By the grace of God, I’ll be that man or woman.” Great decisions follow great thoughts.
II. A Good Time to Read
Paul said, “Till I come, give attendance to reading…” (I Timothy 4:13). The best book we can read is God’s book, The Bible. We all should be reading that divine book every day. Along with the Bible let me encourage you to read biographies and writings of people with character, spiritual vision, and optimism. Read the writings of people who lived the Christian life and did not merely talk of the Christian life. Why is this important? Because Proverbs 13:20 says, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”
William Ellery Channing said, “In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours.”
III. A Good Time to Visit
Summertime conjures up in my mind memories of summers gone by. On summer journeys to my grandmothers’ houses, I am reminded of chairs taken out of the house beneath a big tree after supper. I see my grandmother sitting with a well worn fan, as the sun set, silhouetting her face like a Mount Rushmore memory on my impressionable mind. I would see her disappear in the dark. We kept our seats on the lawn chairs or blankets on the ground, determined by the cousins’ ages. The dark night was sparkling with stars above and fireflies below. The stories that our older relatives told of days gone by and of our ancestors in those days long gone gave us a sense of belonging. As the evening came to a close, application was made on how we then should live and always remember to keep loving. Keep loving God and each other. Someone, usually my Dad, would pick up the guitar and we would close with a hymn. We would go to bed on those summer nights, windows wide open, serenaded by the thirsty frogs and crickets. The final “sweet dreams” wish and our contemplations of the night played in our dreams.
Visit with people that bring you closer to the Lord. Visit with people who challenge you to live with noble behavior. “I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God…” (Jeremiah 5:5).
-Pastor Pope-