shift

Ah summer! One adventure leading to another when lazy days slip by like clouds floating dreamily across the sky. Compared to the duldrum days of winter with snow covered streets and sidewalks and ploughs scraping parking lots, there are early risings and barefoot in the grass days. Winter bundles up in layers to keep frostbites at bay where minutes get marked by the dark mornings and equally dark nights. Oh to keep you here so much longer O summer with your sizzling sun, river rapids and backyard barbeques, mountain hikes and dips in the lake.

But you skimper away as fall prods slowly into the season, stepping on your delicate toes. You dash off too quickly but stop to survey the changing landscape with frosty windows, colored leaves and icy films on the pond. Gusty winds sway the backs of the tree trunks and nature begins to prepare for a change. Honking geese, crunching leaves and yellow school buses fill with exuberant faces as they start another calendar year. We miss you already dear summer!

And so, another holiday filled, lazy, hazy days of summer come to an end once more. We shift our focus and march into the time of bells and studies, school supplies and schedules. It’s a process. That’s what God is doing with us. Refining, honing, crafting, molding and making us more like Him. Shift from the me to Him; from the oneness to the unity; from the inactivity and relaxation to the “let’s get moving” in the direction He wants us to go.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58

Happy September!