Summer Favorites
What are your favorite things about Summer? Do you like sunshine and warm weather? Do you enjoy Summer fruits like peaches, apricots, strawberries, rhubarb and other things? Have you planned for any vacations or time off in Summer? Do you enjoy a more relaxed pace and getting time outdoors?
In my opinion, there’s lots of great things that go with Summer. During this season, I remember long bike rides as a kid, laying the grass and making up shapes and stories with the clouds above. I remember jumping on our trampoline, hunting for crawdads, floating on innertubes on the canal behind our house, swimming, sunburns and loads more. I appreciate that Summer can have a slower pace and it’s nice to be outside without gloves, boots, coats and hats.
Summer reminds me that God bakes into our human existence the need for pause and margin. When we structure our lives such that they remain in a state of perpetual action and achievement, we exchange short term results for long term sustainability. There’s a reason that God created the Sabbath and God made it one of the top priorities in the Ten Commandments. God says that rest is important, full stop.
If rest is important, how do we rest? And, pressing into that question more deeply, what is restful? From my point of view, I don’t find it restful to make a list of things that I can’t do in an effort to force me to rest. For me, rest is taking some time to exhale, reflect, sleep, recover and do things that are enjoyable to me.
So, for me, rest can mean sleeping in and not setting my alarm. Rest can mean playing pickleball with my friends and reading a book that I enjoy. It’s also restful to me to hang out on my porch and watch hummingbirds flit around my feeders and hear them whizzing between the trees. In all of these activities, I’m not busy nor achieving. But, they’re important because they give me margin to recover and refuel from being busy and productive. I also find that my connection with God has more depth when I’m purposeful about keeping rest as part of my life routines and rhythms.
I’m also aware that doing social media, scrolling reels, staying up to speed with current events and catching the latest episode of my favorites series isn’t always restful to me. Sometimes, these things make me anxious and I do not find them relaxing.
So, perhaps it can be helpful to think of a Sabbath rest in terms of having some pause from life to do some connecting with God – intentional connecting so that we aren’t just checking a box for Bible reading and zipping through our prayer list. Sometimes, these activities can be a religious gerbil wheel, making us frantic and tired instead of refreshed and energized.
As you read this blog and think about Summer, what is restful to you? How do you rejuvenate and refuel? As you answer these questions, you might also find it helpful to look at how you integrate rejuvenating activities into your schedule for consistent recovery. Let’s be purposeful about resting and connecting with God in this Summer!
