Summer is one of those times of year that always ends up being too short, yet every year we still try and cram more and more into it. From sports to camps to family events to cleaning and organizing to gardening to getting new pets.
We try to plan as much as we possibly can into that one week without football practices, or have three families over on that one night you're free, just so that you can cross three families off your list, instead of one.
It's very easy for summer to turn into two months of scheduling and planning so that by the end, you're more tired than when you started. Or you have your summer planned down to every minute but have no time left for an impromptu camping trip or a day where you can just say there's nothing to do.
This is when planning is taken to the next level and can leave everyone involved feeling like just a checkmark off the list. When you try to please everyone, or do everything, you end up pleasing no one, and while you may be doing a lot, a lot of what you're doing probably doesn't need to be done.
Take a minute to let that sink in. You may be doing a lot, but maybe a lot of what you're doing doesn't need to be done.
Think about it. When's the last time you spend a night just hanging out with your younger brothers? Or the last time you woke up in the morning, and had enough time to read your Bible for an hour? Or the last time you went grocery shopping with your mom, just because you wanted to hang out with her?
And I get it, there are a hundred things you could be doing. Time is a scarcity that summer somehow steals away very quickly.
But I think that planning to get as much as possible out of every single minute of every day is not the best solution to that problem. It leaves no room for God to surprise you, and those are the best surprises.
On The Other Hand
But, as with everything else in life, there is no one fix-all, or one answer, or one way to do things. The other side of the road we can very easily fall into it not having a plan at all, which ends up with nothing getting done, and you feeling like you wasted your summer.
Having absolutely no plan allows room for spontaneity, but no room for scheduling events to make the most of your time. Forcing your life to revolve around a planner leaves zero room for God to guide us in His plan, but completely throwing plans out the window allows room for the world to creep in and swallow up our time.
Neither rigid nor loose schedules are necessarily bad, in and of themselves, but taken to the extreme they can suck the joy from our lives and steal our productivity. Like it's said, too much of anything is bad, so too much planning is bad, yet too much not planning is also detrimental.
But how do we know when to have a plan, and when to just let go and allow God space to work in our lives?
Living In The Moment
We are never promised a tomorrow. Never promised another breath or another heartbeat. And sometimes, we plan our lives as if we are. Or we don't plan our lives, as if we have so many more days to live.
But we don't. This moment, this second, this snapshot in time is all we are guaranteed. And yet we live like we will always have tomorrow.
James 4:14 says, "you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."
Our lives are a mere speck in the expanse of eternity. And the only time that matters is not tomorrow, or next week, or yesterday. It's now. This moment.
Are you living like that? Or are you living like your future is assured?
When you plan out your summer, does it steal the joy from today? When you schedule next week's plans, do you lose the blessings God has for you in this moment?
Or, do you throw planning to the wind, convincing yourself that there's always tomorrow to go visit your grandma? There's always going to be next summer to do a backyard Bible Study, so you can just enjoy this afternoon watching YouTube, because your little brother will be there tomorrow, right?
Each and every one of us can fall into one of those extremes very easily. And I mean, the Bible doesn't specifically say, "do not use a schedule for your summer." Or "plan out every minute of July or else."
But Jesus did say, "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself."
In your planning or lack thereof, are you loving God, and loving the people made in His image? How can we best manage our time so that every minute is spent glorifying our Heavenly Father?
I don't think there's necessarily an exact answer for this, and like with everything, there's no "one size fits all." But part of conforming our lives to look more like Jesus' is to live in the moment.
When we're living in the moment, there's no room for worrying about next week or last night. There's no time for wasting hours on Netflix or sitting at your desk and planning out tomorrow down to the half-hour.
Jesus' Example
If you look at Jesus' life, it never talks about Him planning for his next big trip, or on the opposite end, relaxing at a host's house, waiting for an impromptu teaching session, and in the meantime wasting precious time. You never see Him worrying about tomorrow, because He didn't even think about tomorrow. He was so caught up in today.
And He didn't just wait for things to happen to Him either. He went out and healed a blind man's sight, and took time for a woman at a well, and took a nap in a boat in the middle of a storm. There was no time to plan, or not plan, because He was so involved in every moment.
A lot of people didn't like this. They wanted Him to plan large gatherings and get together large groups of people to teach and convert. They thought His idea of stopping for a blind man on the side of a street was poor time management.
But, Jesus started His public works and teachings when He was approximately 30 years old. And guess how old He was when He died? Thirty-three. If my math is correct, that's three years. Three years.
Jesus is the most famous historical figure, has more than half of the New Testament devoted to His life alone, performed hundreds of miracles and works, was such a threat to the Jewish authorities that they had Him crucified, and was written about by multiple non-Christian historians of the era.
And He did that all in three years! That's pretty good time management if I do say so myself.
Now Go And Do Likewise
Obviously, Jesus was, and is, perfect, and we can never be exactly like Him, but He does call us to strive to be more like Him, and I think one way we can do this is by living in the moment, just like He did.
Stop trying to plan a perfect summer, and check as many things as possible off your to-do list. Find a balance in between the planning, and lack of planning, to live in the moment, and stop caring about how much you can fit into your summer.
And just live this summer. Because you never know what day will be your last.
So how do we know when to plan, and when to just let God do His thing?
Put it through the filter of the greatest commandment: how can you best love God, and love people. Is a plan for next week the best way to serve God and love His children? Or is letting God have control best?
Because in the end, the only thing that matters is Him. The only thing we really need to do is love Him, and love His people.
So this summer, live - love - in the moment. And remember that now is the only time you are promised. Use it well.