Facebook is a billboard for summer activities and the beach is winning the honors. Although my friend who has travelled to Nova Scotia and is now in California while riding his motorcycle, accompanied by his son, ranks right at the top.

I can almost hear her singing it, can’t you? Straight out of Porgy and Bess…….the lady rolls those big eyes and belts out:

Summertime and the livin ’is easy

Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high

 Makes us wanna git right down and run around the house barefoot. We are talking about cut-offs, t-shirts, kite flyin, truckin, shaggin’ flies, and no school.  I mean there ain’t nothin’ like those lazy hazy days of summer, right? We would all pile in the car cause we were going to Florida. Mama had been cooking fried chicken and boiling eggs for a week so we didn’t have to stop to eat. Shucks, we ate almost all the food before we got to Flat Creek.  Summertime a long-awaited and much-needed season of relaxation and rest. You know something, you cannot ignore the necessity of the summer season in your life. There is an old Greek motto that says:

YOU WILL BREAK THE BOW

IF YOU KEEP IT ALWAYS BENT.

Loosening the strings on our bow means when we have some leisure and we live it up. We deliberately erase from our minds  our day-to-day activities. We break the up-tight mold and do stuff that helps us stay sane, fun to be with and whole people. Which means if we spend a week in one of our favorite places we don’t pinch pennies. We don’t even talk about it or think about it. The same applies to an evening at a classy restaurant. If we take a cruise, we don’t focus on dieting. We refuse to be like the woman on the Titanic who, as she climbed into the lifeboat,  facing an uncertain future, sobbed in anguish, “If I had known this was going to happen, I’d have had the chocolate mousse for dessert!”

If we shoot the rapids on the Ocoee or tubing down the Chattahoochee we go into the attack mode. We scream and spit and gag on a raft full of water as we forget all about being responsible, sensible. professional and proper. The aches and pains we worry about later. This also applies to an afternoon at the Braves stadium.

Maybe that’s what Jim Elliot meant when he wrote, “Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God”

For the one who has entered His rest has himself

Also rested from his works, as God did from His. Let us

Therefore be diligent to enter that rest…………. (Hebrews 4:9)

Finally a word of advice………………..better keep it to yourself.  A lot of folks never go anywhere without a thermometer, a raincoat, a full tank of gas, a gargle, a hot-water bottle, aspirin, a change of socks, plenty of hair spray. Oh, yeah, they are also the ones who keep asking, “What time is it?” How much does this cost?” And, are you sure everybody will understand.                                             Special note: The theme for this ‘blog’ was taken from “Growing in the Seasons of Life” Charles Swindoll.     [JC1]