It’s summertime. Don’t you love it? I do…mostly.
I love sunshine and days at the pool. I love more relaxed schedules and opportunities to travel more. I love the warmth and the chance to leave the house without multiple layers and accessories. I do love summer.
In our military world, though, summer also brings with it a period of transitions.
Whether we are leaving or we have friends who are, it is a season of “see ya laters” and figuring out new norms. As we close out Sunday School season at the Chapel, attend farewells, and experience multiple ceremonies that mark transitions, we long for a moment of quiet to reflect on where we are and what God has done. We long to see His goodness in today and remember His faithfulness in all seasons.
Walking through these transitions, regardless of which side I am on, I sometimes want to crawl in my bubble. Life can sure seem easier if I don’t invest, love, and share with those in my path.
If I don’t step in then I don’t have to step out, right?
Though the temptation is real and rest is good, this desire for self-protection can lead me to apathy in a world that needs Jesus.
Dictionary.com defines apathy this way: “absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement.” In the midst of see-ya-laters, transitions, and the conclusion of seasons of investment and service, we can be tempted to turn to this – an absence of passion or emotion.
In our Christian walk, the true stumbling block many times is not our outright defiance of God, but our apathy, our indifference.
I refuse.
As much as I desire to put that protective bubble around me, I desire even more for the legacy of my life to be more than the absence of passion or emotion for the things of God. Trips to the pool, more relaxed schedules, vacations–these are all good things, but God is still at work even here.
My prayer for myself this summer, as well as for you, is this:
- I bravely show up: in relationships, in service, in transition, in rest, He still asks us to show up. To be present and available for His use whatever that may be.
- I actively look: at the pool, on vacation, in the farewells and hellos, He is at work and I don’t want to miss it.
- I continually grow: in our Christian walk, we are going forward or backward, not just standing there. I say we go forward.
He has called us to many things at many times. This season is no different. As we say see ya later to friends and family, join new communities, change time zones or continents, make a new house a home, I say we boldly follow. As we welcome new families, find a new normal without the friends of the past few years, wave as others go on new adventures, I say we boldly follow here as well.
[ctt template=”1″ link=”7F4xq” via=”no” ]We will not give in to apathy or even fear, but we will continue to follow.[/ctt]In our obedience in the little things of the everyday, we string together a life, a legacy, of faithfulness to Jesus. Now that is something I want to leave behind.
