Summer should be six months long. I mean, honestly, it should be longer than that. But at least half of the year.
When I was a kid, I was shocked when I found out that summer was like less than three months. For some people, it's less than two! And that's just not fair!
I mean, we have to cram so much into summer. Parties and swimming and camps and sleeping and family time and vacations and summer jobs... that's just too much for only two months.
But unfortunately, somehow summer is only two to three months long.
And somehow, we have to fit every single fun summer thing into that time. Leaving us no room for rest, no room for the people around us, no room to just enjoy having nothing to do or going on a walk or spontaneously going to get ice cream... and no room for peace.
We can always get caught up in the whirlwind of stuff and plans and checklists, but it's in summer especially that our peace is stolen away by the thieves of planning and busyness and constant summer plans.
I can feel that tug.
The pulling, tugging sensation of work and schedules and needing to do things and having so many things to do starting to drag me into the whirlpool of busyness.
Stealing away my peace.
Suffocating my trust in God.
Sucking at my joy.
When I look ahead into a week with no breaks, so little time, and a million things to do, it's tiring just thinking about it. And I so easily lose sight of right now, the moment that I'm in, the people that I'm with right now.
Summer catches us up and we forget to enjoy the moment, so focused on tomorrow. We look over the people in front of us trying to catch a glimpse of the future.
Sometimes, with the weight of so many things to do and so little time, we bow our heads and... don't look up. We look down at our feet plodding along so slowly and forget to look at the scenery passing us by.
We look down at the sidewalk underneath our shoes and the plans getting trampled by time and don't realize that life is passing us by.
And then at the end of summer, we look up and it's all behind us. We look up, take a breath, and realize...
We've missed it.
We've missed the moment. Missed life. Missed the people around us and their stories and their lives.
We've missed peace and trust and the joy of living in the now.
In the craziness of summer, it's so easy to forget that now - this moment, this place, these people, His plan - is all that matters. Right here, right now... that is the moment God has given you.
So don't get caught letting summer and its plans and its craziness force your head to look down.
Look up!
Look up at Him - at His beauty, His face, the summer He has given you, the people He has put in your life.
And take a second to just sit with Him. Sit in His goodness. Sit in His peace, knowing that... He's got this. He's got you. You don't have to worry or stress about anything because He has a plan for your summer.
Isn't that so freeing?
Isn't giving Him control, smiling and letting go, and basking in His peace beautiful?
You can have plans and vacations, camps and work, summer jobs and checklists, but don't let them steal your joy. Don't let them steal this moment out from under you.
God has given you now.
Don't waste it.
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