When I was a kid, summer vacation in upstate New York began at the end of June and ended right after Labor Day. Even without a calendar, I could pinpoint the end of summer by the leaves just starting to change, by an open window that allowed a hint of a crisp breeze into my bedroom at night.
And then I knew school was right around the corner.
Instead of being sad, though, I was excited. I would start riding my bike past the school each day, looking for the posting of our homerooms in the window. Who would be my teacher? Would my friends be in my class?
When I became a teacher, I still got excited about school. And just like when I was a kid, I would count the days until summer was over, praying the days would fly by.
But this summer has been different. This summer has been far too short. If only I could stretch out the days. I’ve enjoyed every day this summer because I’ve spent as many of those days as possible at church.
Now that I’m going back to school, back to work in a week, I’m left in a quandary. How do I balance what I need and want to do at work with what I want and need to do at church?
And I do need church.
In the movie The Incredibles a little neighborhood boy waits every day for Bob Parr (aka Mr. Incredible) to come home from work because he knows that Bob is a super-hero.
One day Bob asks him, “What are you waiting for?”
And the little boy responds, “I don’t know. Something amazing, I guess.”
That is why I go to church, not to wait for something amazing, but to experience something amazing. Something amazing happens to me every time I go to church whether it’s a Sunday morning or a Tuesday night. Pick a day and something amazing happens to my spirit, to my soul, to my heart.
Church has changed me. God has changed me through church. And I’m only just beginning to see what those changes are.
I said a few weeks ago, in my Moment in Faith, that God had given me a new heart and a new spirit through the people at Hope Episcopal Church. What have my new heart and spirit allowed me to do?
Well … now I can hope. Now I can breathe. Now I can accept the blessings of others and let their goodwill shine through in everything that I do.
That is what church has done for me. That is why I need church. And I need church on more days than just Sunday morning.
Where, though, will I get the strength for both work and church?
I don’t know. I just know that I have to trust God. He has always provided when I have been in need.
Leonard Sweet writes in The Church of the Perfect Storm, “There are times when we need to take our hands totally off the controls, and trust the Spirit of God to blow us where it wills. There are times when we need to learn how to be what I call pneumanauts, or sailors of the Spirit.”
So that is what I will do. I will trust God and try not to count the days until school is out and summer begins again.
