Too often I find myself in the summer, covered in sweat as I walk the 15 feet from my door to my car (did I mention I live in Texas), uncertain of what the actual date is if it's not July 4th, my daughter's birthday, my anniversary, or Labor Day, and wondering when fall will get here and things can "get started" again. Seriously, what the heck happened to summer? I remember when I used to run out of a school building chanting with glee about the end of pencils and books. I would be thrilled to wear my summer clothes, head to the pool, and pack up for vacation. I remember rolling down the streets of Northern Virginia with my windows rolled down (manually) blasting DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, singing, Summer, summer, summertime, with all the coolness of a high school student enjoying her free time. This bliss followed me through my undergraduate years and then I grew up and reality hit. Summer for adults is NOT THE SAME!
I remember that first summer after I'd worked a full year, when I realized there was no longer a summer break when you're an adult. The disappointment of realizing I still had to go to work, and in 99 degree heat was devastating. I remember when I left the corporate world and went into ministry how we would foolishly talk about summer as if things "eased up" only to realize that nothing eases up because Sunday still happens every weekend, and we still have church, again in 99 degree heat. Now, I'm a mostly stay-at-home mom with two small people who have no concept of time, seasons, or days of the week and look to me to be their cruise director each day, providing activities and entertainment. They don't understand why so many of our fun activities shut down for the summer; they don't understand why the playground slide now feels like the oven I tell them not to touch. They also don't understand the heat. Today, my almost 3 year old daughter pointed to her armpits and said, "Mama, why is it wet under here?" Seriously people, 99 degrees!
Maybe you are also feeling the drag of the summer suck, or maybe you love summer and think I'm nuts. If that's the case, I invite you to reflect on whatever season or occasion unexpectedly, yet habitually tries to knock the joy out of you by throwing off your routine or pulling you from the things that you typically enjoy. The point I'm making here is that it is crazy how something like heat and an endless routine or messed-up routine can sneak up and steal your God-given joy from you.
How easily we are thrown. How foolish we are to ever believe the source of our joy is our surroundings or circumstances.
" The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy...." John 10:10a
Every time summer or any other season or situation creeps up on me and hits me in the back of the head, I'm reminded that the enemy is a thief. Thieves creep up behind you and knock you out to take what you value most. At least they do in the movies, I've seen. Forget the red cape and horns. I'm more inclined to picture the devil as a dude in a black turtleneck, black pants, and a black knit cap or ski mask tiptoeing through my house bagging up my patience, peace, joy, and self-control like they were electronics and jewels. And when I picture him like that, it reminds me that I'm not the victim in the house, I'm the safe.
"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst."
1 Corinthians 3:16
The Spirit lives in me, and I am His temple. That means, it is my job to keep the temple secure. I can't allow the gifts that I have been given to be stolen from me. I have to arm myself, stay on my guard against spiritual attacks, and keep focused on the things of God, so that nothing He has given me can be taken away, nothing He has spoken into me can be outshouted, and nothing He has planned for me can be derailed. What's true for me is true for you. When you are feeling low, spiritually drained, hopeless, or down because of circumstances, remember that you have the power that raised Jesus from the dead living inside you, the Holy Spirit. He lives in you, He enables you, & He wants you to experience the joy and peace that comes from Him.
Earlier this week, I looked around me and realized I was letting the "funk" of the summer season suck me into laziness both spiritually, mentally, and physically. You noticed, if you follow my blog, the lack of posts for a few weeks. I wasn't depressed, I was simply being lazy as a result of feeling "off". I had one of those 5am wake up calls (from God, not my toddlers) where the Spirit rebuked me for my laziness and told me to get up and do the things I know I'm supposed to do. He reminded me that God also does not get a summer break, so His work still needs to get done and that means my work still needs to get done. He reminded me that there is joy to be found even in 99 degree heat. And just to be sure I heard Him on Monday morning, He popped this verse into YouVersion this morning as the verse of the day:
"Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me." Psalm 51:12
You know, Romans 8 tells us that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we don't know what to pray for ourselves. I'm pretty sure this verse in Psalms is exactly what He was praying for me when He woke me up Monday morning. Now, I'm praying it for myself, and I'm praying it for anyone of you out there who is reading this and finding yourself getting sucked into circumstances whether that's today as I write this, or six months from now when you stumble across this post for no reason you can fathom. He will restore your joy and have you singing happy songs about "summer" again!
Here it is the groove slightly transformed, just a bit of a break from the norm. Just a little something' to break the monotony... (duh, of course I'm playing it right now).
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