Has it really only been two weeks since school got out? When I realized that today, I nearly panicked. What am I going to do for the next few months? Thankfully, I do have some things planned for the summer. I will be spinning yarn for an online store (I’ll get back to that some other time), and I plan on volunteering at the farm at my school. I have a failure of a garden that needs tending to, a pile of books to read, trails I need to explore, crafts I need to complete. I want to practice my writing. And I am taking three online classes consecutively throughout the summer. But that still leaves time. Lots and lots of it.
I wonder sometimes if I am a busybody. As much as I love being lazy, too much of it makes me feel, well, insignificant. I feel like I need to do something important with my life. So I’ll mix up some cookies or wash some dishes or volunteer to go grocery shopping. I’ll make a checklist to make myself feel productive--as if those things were actually important.
Speaking of check-lists.
Begin blog post. Check.
Here’s the thing. Summer feels like a pause button on my life. I wonder if anyone else feels the same. Think about it. Most television shows involving students skip over their characters’ summers. Nothing important happens to them except they get a tan or sell some lemonade. When I am at school, I am investing in my future. Over the summer, I am just staying alive, preparing for Season 20 or Season 21 of my life.
Yet, when I remember what my purpose in life is, my to-do-lists begin to seem small and insignificant. Is what I am doing really as important as what I am becoming? If I thought about it that way, I could say that school and other activities invest in the short term (getting a job, making lifelong friends, gaining knowledge, making decisions for my future, etc.) while this time alone, this time of waiting, is an opportunity to invest in the long term. I finally have time to get back in God’s Word. I have time to pray without being interrupted. I have time to contemplate, to meditate, and to grow spiritually. No time given to God is wasted.
Oswald Chambers wrote that "The busyness of things obscures our concentration on God. We must maintain a position of beholding Him, keeping our lives completely spiritual through and through….Never let a hurried lifestyle disturb the relationship of abiding in Him.”
I realize that not everyone’s summers are as lazy as mine,
and I also realize that the above quote refers to all times of life, not just
the slow times. I want to “abide in Him” at all times, but I am seeing now that
lazy days are great opportunities for not only that, but also for service. Chambers
also says, “Days set apart for quiet can be a trap, detracting from the need to
have daily quiet time with God.” I can’t say that summer is for this and the school year is for that. Both should be lived in a posture of beholding God and being open to Him.
Have a nice summer! I will hopefully be posting more often.
-ED
