The following blog is the 3rd in a series on “Sacred Summer” from Matthew Eckert.
How has your Sacred Summer been going? Have you been able to make one or two simple adjustments during this unique season of the year?
I recognize that it is near the end of summer, yet I believe it is still good to ponder and perhaps it will become part of your “Sacred Fall.” I don’t know about you, but I find it so helpful to break things up into chunks of time and look at ways to maximize that season.
What does your time in scripture look like during the summer? Do the distractions of other unique summer activities push this aspect of your faith journey to the side? Then you wait for September to gorge on the bible and fill up again? (been there, done that).
Let me make a suggestion that may better fit into the flow of summer rhythms - find one passage, one book of the bible - and enjoy it all summer. Perhaps you have engaged in a daily reading plan that has you in a different scripture each day, or perhaps you have a devotional that gives you new insight for each day. Both of these are good, and with the right attitude and mindset, lead to significant life change over time.
Yet the summer is different. Your rhythms may distract you from what you have regularly done. That daily bible reading gets put off for a week away at a cottage and then you feel guilty for not keeping up.
What could this look like?
Take the book of Philippians, it has 4 chapters. Print it out and place copies in strategic locations so you’ll never forget (office, truck, kitchen, bathroom, backpack). Find it on an App so you can listen to it. Then read or listen to a chapter a day (or the entire book). Once done, start all over again. Let the beauty of one book, one train of thought, wash over you for an entire season, an entire summer. Wash. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
As you embrace this, listen to the themes. Allow the Holy Spirit to prompt you, to have certain words, phrases, or entire sections almost rise off the page as though they were written for you.
Ask God to reveal how these insights are to impact your leadership, your business purpose and values, your relationships, marriage, parenting, how you see yourself, and your identity in Christ.
I believe that if you embrace the simplicity of this, you will look back, even years down the road, and declare, “I remember the summer of 2021 when God met me in a unique way. It was the summer of Philippians.”
May the simplicity of this prompt you to enjoy the beauty of this season. May God reveal himself to you in new and unique ways. May this be a summer like no other.
