three anchors for the crazy of summer

I mean, I remember when summer mornings started slow like a cat stretching in sunlight, and ambled blissfully into pick-up lunches of peanut butter sandwiches, sun tea, and apples slices. Then the long stretch of afternoon would drift into heaping hours of daylight after dinner. We would fall into bed feeling we’d lived a century that day, and it would still be light as we winked at sleep from our soft, cool pillows.

It don’t be like that no mores, folks.

Summer is crazy. And don’t we know it. All the hectic, and upheaval of kids home from school, and activities with friends, and yard work, and normal work, and travel, and vacations, and half-days, and houseguests, and possibilities, and longings for the beach…we need help in this here crazy of summer. We need something to ground us to truth.

We find our anchors in 1 Corinthians 6. Paul is reminding the believers of how their salvation can (and must) affect their lifestyle. And in the last couple verses, he brings it all home.

#1 I am bought with a price

Your summer will disappoint. Count on it. Coworkers will be crabby. Vacation will evaporate. It will rain. The kids will bicker or be bored all the minutes. It’s hot, ya’ll. The garden we thought would be our savior turns into the devil incarnate. We get sick. Summer sick is the worst… We need our gratitude to hang on something more sturdy than our anticipated summer hallmark moments. We need to remember our salvation.

I was bought with the precious blood of Christ, and the day I believed that, everything changed. In Him I am continually loved, protected, forgiven, strengthened. He is my wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father. Let that sink in. When all my summer hopes and desires seem to melt in this here low country sun, I may whisper low I am bought with a price, and be refreshed and content. I am His.

#2 I am not my own

 Summers breed selfishness. Someone comment below and tell us why that is. I want the perfect wardrobe. The relaxing schedule. The tan. The foods. The long walks. Less work. Less average-day time, more me time. And I want right now. 

But you see, I am not my own. My summer is not my own. Look closely, and you’ll find a blessed relief in those words. This is not the summer of everything-must-be-about-Beth. This is the summer of Christ-lives-in-me. His revealed opinion of my circumstances can matter most. Where and how He is at work in this child, friend, coworker, church member, sibling, parent, spouse standing in front of me can be more important than my agenda for them (or getting them out of the way of my agenda) While the world screams “YOU, baby!” from every billboard, catalog, and summer commercial, I may find deliverance from just that. Hallelujah, folks. My life is not my own.

#3 I am made to glorify God.

Every day this summer, every moment, I may bring God glory. This summer is a free-for-all on glorifying. Paul places no stipulations on this. When I’m frustrated at work, when my kid projectile vomits across the living room, when my roommate__________, when my spouse doesn’t_________________, when I’m tempted to____________, I may glorify God.

And Paul specifically mentions our bodies. In the context of this verse, that has strong implications for my purity this summer. Wrestle with that. Summers are not license for loose living and lust. (please marvel at that alliteration.) But, really. How does that apply to you? I know how it does to me. These couple months are not a season where I can use my body to look, act, and think as closely like the world as I want without consequence. The world is bent on pleasing itself this summer. I have the privilege of being bent on pleasing God.

 ____________________________________

Three anchors. Attach yourself to them. Make them your mantra. Put them on continuous repeat in your mind’s Pandora channel. Right after Traditional Hawaiian. Then let this crazy, ol’ world spin around us. We are rooted and grounded in truth, and will not be unmoored.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God…”

Beth