Well, here we are, it’s summer.
How often we associate this time of the year with the idea of getting some rest, taking a break, a time to re-group so we can face the demands of life found in the rest of the year. And so we head off for a vacation in the mountains or we take that trip we have been planning for months or maybe we just choose a ‘stay home’ vacation where we relax in the backyard.
Whatever your mode of rest this summer, may I encourage you to not waste it. I mean, why not take the time to renew yourself with God? David in Psalm 131 paints this picture for us. He says in Psalm 131:2 – “But I am calm and quiet, like a baby with its mother. I am at peace, like a baby with its mother.”
In that psalm David says in the next verse – “People of Israel, put your hope in the Lord now and forever.” This summer, where are you finding your hope? Most of you are doing too much right now.
Your schedules are too busy. You have many irons in the fire and that fire is threatening to go out even this summer unless we take the time to find our rest and hope in God.
So, as you relax by a campfire or on a lawn chair in the backyard, take some time to listen. Because in the quiet, in the stillness we will hear God who not only gives us the emotional and spiritual rest we need, but He also has something to say to us. Often the question is not whether God is speaking, but whether we are being still enough, and quiet enough to hear.
Wherever you find yourself resting this summer, what is it that God might want to say to you as you’re relaxing, taking it easy? Just the thought that God has something to say to us, almost makes us want to turn our thoughts towards God just to hear what He would say to us.
He has things to say to you because first of all He loves you, but also He cares about the direction your life takes, the decisions you make and He wants to guide you. Don’t we all need some guidance in our lives?
And so, this summer, I hope that you can get away somewhere and find the physical rest you need. But as you do that, why not take some time to connect with God who has something to say to you.
As you rest, look to God and just listen. He offers you Himself who can help you to have that inner, extended rest you need. Take the time this summer to seek out God and discover the peace you need, the peace you long for - a renewed sense of hope that will last beyond this summer.
The Tri-Communiy Baptist Church in Beiseker submits this column.
