0513 Bill Brunson
Bill Brunson, Senior Pastor, Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church.
Each year summer arrives on June 21 at the Summer Solstice. However, by its official arrival we have already shed the heavy coats, the light jackets and, for some, even the long pants. From the beginning of spring to the end of summer, the world changes in amazing ways. The problem is that we are often too pushed, rushed, busy and exhausted to enjoy it, to embrace it or to learn from it.
While nature changes all around us in our day-to-day lives, we are usually busy. We spend the last part of winter working to pay off the previous Christmas. In spring, we spend our nights and much of our weekends watching the children in our lives kick, hit, throw or catch a ball at one of the many fields around town.
Then in late spring our attention turns to counting down the days until summer. Students of all ages look forward to the break from school, while adults make reservations and save vacation days for a getaway or, at least, a staycation. It is a busy time of year.
However, the whirlwind of life often prevents us from being able to focus on the miracle that takes place all around us as the world comes to life. Trees bud. Grass grows. Flowers bloom. The long days of summer are designed to allow us to spend more time with family and friends, but we often crowd them out with more work and chores.
Just as God renews creation each and every spring and summer, I believe that God can and will renew us – if we will ask. God created each of us for a purpose, and God never gives up on any of us. Too often we are too busy, too rushed, too preoccupied and too worried to stop and see what miracle God wants to do in us. Too often, we get so caught up in other things that we forget that one of the messages of the Resurrection is that we can have new life, and one of the purposes of the Spirit who came at Pentecost is to inspire us to be like Christ.
So, instead of spending your summer rushing through each day, why not take a lesson from the Psalmist and “Be still and know that God is God.”
As you watch a sunset on a lake or the sunrise on the beach, ask yourself, “Where do I need to experience the old (habits, thoughts, fears, grudges, etc.) and give way to the new?” The prophet Isaiah said, “Look I am doing a New Thing.” Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly.” Revelation tells us that the One who sits on the throne says, “Behold, I make all things new.”
Where do you need to experience “new”?
