Summertime and the livin’ is easy….or is it?
Oh the sweet summer days and evenings filled with sunshine, picnics, water parks, bbq’s, vacations and staycations! As the screams of delight and laughter of children at play fill the neighborhoods across America, you can almost hear the silent prayer of thanks lifted in unison by mothers from coast to coast for that annual blessing from heaven otherwise known as “back to school”. As we attend the usual barrage of summer weddings and await the births of babies, we all bear witness once again to the cycle of life that with each new season of birth and death holds the unique power to delight and disappoint, energize and exhaust, gift and grieve us. Livin’ in America…ain’t it great?
This summer has been different somehow. Amidst all the usual family filled fun times of summer, there is a different feeling in America this year. As I talk to people I hear again and again an underlying fear and despair coming through in the conversation. I have personally never seen America in quite this serious of a predicament in my adult life. With record numbers of Americans losing homes and jobs, ridiculous oil prices putting the squeeze on all of our wallets, the skyrocketing price of not “living” but rather surviving in this economy is hitting hard. In talking with a friend the other day we were discussing how easy it is to look at the current state of world and domestic affairs and lose hope. When we can’t see a way out of the circumstances we find ourselves in, this fear can become a stranglehold on our faith in God and in the future.
If we are honest with ourselves, we have collectively created the mess we are living in right now. As I watch the atrocities being committed in Darfur and the Congo and contrast that with the way I live, I am appalled to think of the way we waste our freedoms because of our own attitude of entitlement as Americans. With all that we have been blessed with, I fear that we are selling our birthright to other countries for the sake of having what we want when we want it in the easiest way possible. Is that what the American dream has become?
As I talk to other Christ followers, I find it interesting to find that even among Christians, we don’t always want to look introspectively to take responsibility for our own actions that get us into these situations. Whether on a global scale or a personal one, we find it easier to blame God, asking how could a God of love let this happen? Even some that try earnestly to follow Him, can’t understand why everything doesn’t work out the way they’ve prayed. We buy into theories of the law of attraction, we pray and meditate from a self centered core, giving much less importance (if any at all) to God’s laws of love that require responsibility, accountability, and a heart for the common good that need to work hand in hand to balance things out. When things don’t work out according to our plans we repeatedly arrive at one question…can I really trust God with my life?
If you’ve ever felt that question welling up within you, I would ask you this. Can God trust you with your life? Can God trust us with America and our place in the world? I would go out on a limb and suggest here that until we do some personal and collective soul searching and take responsibility for our past and future choices, we won’t see the blessing that we so long for. We choose destructive paths over and over and think just because we regret or even repent of those choices, that maybe we’ll get to skip the consequences that stem from them. Not usually. As humans, we don’t learn the deep lessons of life playing on the playground at recess. We learn them in the classroom, in the day to day struggles of life that ultimately become our greatest teachers. Although I firmly believe that common sense is not at all common, I would challenge all of us during these tough personal, economic and political times to engage our common sense and start asking the hard questions about ourselves that will lead us into a brighter tomorrow. This summer can be a turning point for us personally and collectively. I’ve lived long enough to know that even in summer, the livin’ isn’t really easy for much longer than the length of a well deserved vacation, but I do believe it can be full of purpose, full of hope, and full of the fullness that God promises to us when we open ourselves to receive the lesson. I guess this is our “back to school”.
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