Summertime & seasons of life
In school many years ago, I can remember we were given the assignment to write a paper on "What I did this summer”. Of course, by that time we were back at our studies, so it seemed all we had to get us through those long cold months of drudgery were the memories of the fun we had and the things we experienced until summer finally rolled around again. And here I am all these years later, asking myself the same basic thing. Yet somehow, it’s all different.
When we were in school we assumed we had our whole life ahead of us. Of course, a couple of our classmates “checked out” early - “before their time” as they say, but they were always the exception, rather than the rule. And back then, the years passed sooo slowly. Of course, a lot of the things we heard and saw and experienced were totally new to us. Yet someohow we knew that many of those experiences had the potential to change the way we would see and think about our world from that time on. I should have cherished those years more. But then school years were miserable for me, so I was just anxious for it all to end.
Soon enough I found myself in the workforce where I could finally start “living my life”. That’s when I learned that jobs are not all the same - some are good, and some are not. Yet everyone of them exposes you to a different culture and a different side of life. Everyone of them has good points and bad. Everyone of them provides you with yet another piece of the puzzle so that one day, when you finally begin to get a better view of the overall picture, hopefully, you can start understanding things just a little bit better.
But that is a dangerous season, and those are dangerous years. In our woefully uninformed frailty, we sometimes cling to the things that were meant to be temporary, while allowing things to slip through our fingers that we should have held onto.
Fortunately God has held onto me through all the turbulence and all the questioning and all the many, many mistakes I have made along the way, so that now (on my best days) I strain to see things through HIS eyes.
And here we are again in the middle of summer, but I no longer have my whole, limitless life in front of me anymore. So I can’t help but look back and wonder what I did, and perhaps more importantly, what I should be doing. I get the impression that I should be out making memories - seeing new things and doing new things - so that when that long dark season comes, I will ahve something pleasant to look back on.
Lord, save me (and you, too) from the business of life so that (you and ) I can once again live life to the full, even as I gather more pleasant memories. Amen
Pastor Ed