Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
For most of the country, the Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of summer. It’s a common cultural marker that reminds us that its time to change our wardrobes, change routines, and start preparing for fall.
Here in Indiana, with our schools starting in August, (and some places in July!), we start thinking about fall…in the middle of the hottest month. For me, it’s kind of like moving to Georgia and needing to think about Christmas when it’s still 70 out.
And yet here we are! Most of our kids went back to school this past week. High Point Youth Group kicked off its new year this week. And a host of other possibilities are beginning.
What I’ve invited us to do this summer is to bring vacation learning forward into the rest of our lives. Precisely because of how strong the norms of “Fall” and “Back to School” and “Return to Normal” are. How resistant these modes of thinking are to taking time, relaxing, or unscheduled time.
As I’ve written before, the hammock is my icon of vacation: an image I use to manifest the need to rest. But God did not command us to hallow the Sabbath for a couple weeks each summer and then put our noses to the grindstone for 350 days straight. That isn’t a normal worth returning to.
Sabbath normalizes rest. It is an act of resistance in a culture of productivity. God wants us to experience vacation all year long.
With love,
Drew