Summer's End

I've always prided myself in being a person who never tried to hold on to things too tightly. Okay, I'll admit I do have a certain amount of difficulty throwing some things away....you know, that skirt that was just the right fit and color, or that little bit of leftover chili that would be just enough to put on a hot dog.....yea, those type things I do have a tendency to hold on to w-a-a-y too long. Or as one of my nieces would say concerning the chili, I keep it in the refrigerator until it turns into a science experiment! But......besides those two little areas, I think I can pretty much let go and move on........that is, except for summer. I have always had the hardest time excepting the fact that summer has to come to an end. I can remember as a child......well, even into my teen years....just moaning and groaning about how many days were left until we had to go back to school. I went over this every single day as if just fussing about it would make the whole situation go away. It wasn't that I hated school....I didn't.....I just LOVED summer and everything that went along with it so much! The fact of the matter is, I haven't changed my opinion on this at all. I STILL love every minute of summer!

Summers for me meant 4-H camps and competitions, sleeping late, days with friends at the pool, fishing with my parents and our week of vacation at the beach. Mama would be shelling peas and butterbeans to put in the freezer, canning pickles and tomatoes and making blackberry jelly. She also "put up" cream corn.....that's some more southern lingo for cutting corn off the cob and freezing it. The best part of all this was that she also cooked a lot of these fresh vegetables everyday.....talk about good eating! Summer meant having at least a couple of churns of homemade ice cream at my grandparents, and following our fishing trips, we'd usually had a fish fry at their house, as well. I'm sure it was hot, but you know, I never really noticed. Those pesky mosquitoes that think I am a buffet now, never bothered me back then, or if they did, not enough to keep me inside. I had a pair of tennis shoes and a pair sandals for the summer, but my favorite shoes were none at all! The neighborhood kids would play kickball or blind man's bluff until dark and then we would catch fireflies until our parents called us to come inside. No wonder I never wanted summer to end......who would?

I'm sure if my children were asked to describe what summer meant to them, their memories would be very different from mine. They would read the above paragraph and laugh at how dated it all is. And......that would be true. The world today is so much more high tech and high energy.....nothing slow is ever considered to be good. So my slow paced summer lifestyle would not be at all acceptable, much less desired. Is that bad? Well, I guess it depends on how I look at it. If I "dig in" and say that all summers should be like they were when I was a child, then I'm in for a lot of disappointment. My kids not only can't imagine that type lifestyle, they don't want to spend their summers the way I did. They have their own ideas of what a great summer is, and who is to say any of our ideas are wrong? The most important thing is that all of us have good memories that we will carry with us forever, no matter what "era" they occurred.

Today's church would do well to keep this in mind as we try to reach a lost world. Just because something the church participated in or offered years ago was wonderful, it may not be so great for today. The purpose it filled so well "way back when" may not even be pertinent in today's society. The Word of God is living and should never, ever be altered in anyway, but the way we approach a hurting world must be "real"........something they understand and can relate to. If the church "digs in" and says we are going to do things the way we've always done them, then it should not expect the world of today to understand or even desire the salvation of our Lord it tries to offer. It's kind of like giving free wood to a person without heat when they don't even have a fireplace in their home......it might have met the need years ago, but not in this current situation. Jesus is still Lord.......the church just needs to figure out the best way to show the world His love.

Well, summer is quickly drawing to a close for me and yes, I am not so happy about it. Time to get on schedule and start getting back into a routine. Maybe I should take some of my own advice and just stop dreading the end......after all, I've always said fall is my favorite season. So......it's not the end of summer for me, it's just getting closer to the beginning of fall! There......how about that for a new mindset?