A Blessing of Summertime

If you've been around me much at all you know that Summer isn't my favorite season of the year.  I love Spring and Fall, and I tolerate Summer.  It's not that I hate the hot weather and the high humidity.  It's not that I don't like the longer days.  It's not that I abhor the "critters" that creep and crawl at this particular time of the year.  (Yes, I did kill a Copperhead in my driveway last week).  The thing that I don't like about summer is the mindset that so many people have about their Christian service.  It's like the months of June, July and August are one, big vacation from Christian responsibility! There isn't a service during the summertime when we don't have many of our folks out of town.  There is hardly a day during the summertime when our entire staff is at work.  It seems that every day someone is somewhere other than in the office.  I hate it!

However, there is one thing that I really like about Summer.  I love the fact that many of our college kids are at home.  As I sat on the platform last night and scanned the congregation, I saw more than a dozen young adults who will only be here for about another month.  In late August or early September they will return to college somewhere in America to pursue their dreams and follow the will of God.

I love it when our college "kids" are home!  God has given us some outstanding young men and women in our church, and many of those folks are somewhere else nine months out of the year.  During the summertime when they are at home, I love having them actively involved in church.  They have such a fervent spirit and for the most part, they're pretty excited about life.  They are a blessing to their pastor.

I hope that you'll enjoy the time that we have with our college kids.  Let them know that you're glad they're home.  Convey to them that you are proud of their accomplishments.  Pray that God will provide the much needed finances that will be necessary for them to return to school in the fall. Enjoy them while you can because in just a matter of weeks, they'll be gone.