As I sat down to write this blog, millions of things came to mind to write about. Trying to narrow down what was important and what was just random thoughts were hard. Then I kept thinking about this article I read yesterday. It's called Summers Are For Seeking Christ.
For those who see my Facebook or Instagram you are well aware of my love for summer. My last blog talked about my love for summer as well. So I think I've made it very clear how much I love this time of year. Sorry if you're over my enthusiasm for this season but I might as well warn you that it's not going to end, I'm still going to be declaring my love ALL summer! It just brings out the best in me and I'm not going to hold it in.
Back to the article, there is a quote from John Piper in this article that says, "God made summer as a foretaste of heaven, not a substitute. If the mailman brings you a love letter from your fiancé, don’t fall in love with the mailman. That’s what summer is: God’s messenger with a sun-soaked, tree-green, flower-blooming, lake-glistening letter of love to show us what he is planning for us in the age to come." Oh this just made my heart so happy! I've always loved the summer but I've never thought of it as a taste of what God has in store for us! The article warns against the distractions of this season and how it can cause us to lose focus on the One who truly matters. It's a really good article and I recommend reading it.
This summer feels different from last summer. Last summer I was working 60 hours a week doing in home counseling. I love helping people but by last summer I was burnt out and vaguely remember truly enjoying anything last summer. Don't get me wrong, I had some great times last summer but my heart, mind, and soul were so tired. If you go back to the blogs I wrote last summer, you'll see how God was attempting to grab my attention and turn my heart into a new direction.
I read another article yesterday about C.S Lewis's books and how he wrote a story about a boy whose greed and self centeredness turned him into a dragon. Near the end of the story the boy meets Aslan who tells the boy to undress and jump into a spring. The boy knew he meant to take off the dragon skin before jumping in. The boy attempted 3 times to remove his skin but each time he looked at his skin and knew it wasn't good enough. Finally Aslan assisted the boy and this is what the boy said, "'And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feelings the stuff peel off. … Well he pulled the beastly stuff right off — just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt — and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobly looking than the others had been. And there was I, as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been.' Then with velvet paws, Aslan picks him up and placed him in the water, healing him, breathing on him, clothing him and finally sending him back to the other characters in the story."
The article goes onto explain the meaning C.S Lewis was portraying by this story. Much like this story, God has been putting me through this skin peeling process (metaphorically, not physically). He's stripping me of all the things in my life that I've tried picking off myself but it takes Him cleansing me of these things completely for it to really work.
Last summer I had those unnecessary layers of skin and this summer I have this new healthy fresh skin! I'm just so thankful for all God has and continues to do for me. My love for this summer is directly correlated to the love and mercy God has so graciously poured upon me. I just hope this love and mercy will become contagious. I'm more than happy to dance this dance alone, but it's more fun when others are involved :-)
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