Summer Challenges

It’s almost June now—a fine time to check and see if we’re really ready for all that summer brings.  I don’t mean ready with sun-screen or a new BBQ grill, but with spiritual resolve to grow strong in Jesus during this odd season called summertime.  Here are several challenges:

• Don’t "bail" on the church—you need your church family and they need you all year round.  Baseball is seasonal; so are garden­ing and golf and raking leaves.  But being the body of Christ isn’t seasonal.
• Don’t take a vacation from your routine spiritual practice—from reading Scripture carefully (with your own Bible, pen in hand) and responding to God’s Word through prayer.  Summer’s disruptions make it all the more crucial to stay close to Jesus.  The rest of the year our more regular schedules help us keep our bearings and stay on track:  we’re creatures of habit.  But summer throws us a curve.  So brace yourself, and make plans now so that shifting schedules don’t stifle your walk with Christ.
• Make your decisions about what to wear this summer with the good of others in mind.  Your own style preferences or whatever’s the current fashion are hardly the guiding standards.  Gals, your brothers in Christ will be grateful if you choose modesty.
• The flipside of that topic is guarding your eyes and directing your vision away from lustful gazing.  Jesus doesn’t buy excuses like “Boys will be boys” or “I couldn’t help it” (Matthew 5:27-30).  Commit your eyes to honoring the Lord (Job 31:1).
• In an article on the “Summer Mindset,” John Piper counsels all who yearn for R&R:  “Jesus Christ is refreshing.  Flight from him into Christless leisure makes the soul parched…  Don’t let sum­mer make your soul shrivel.”  This is God’s good earth.  “But it is all prelude to the real drama of heaven.  It is a foretaste of the real banquet.”  The heavenly city “has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev 21:23).  “The summer sun is a mere pointer to the sun that will be.  The glory of God.  Summer is for seeing and showing that.  Will we have eyes to see?  Do you want to have eyes to see?  Lord, let us see the light beyond the light."

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