Summer in in the air. You can see it everywhere you look. Its in the blooming flowers, annoying spiders and bugs, and of course the sweltering heat! I spend twice as much on hair products, sunscreen, and detergent to combat this most unbearable of seasons! Yet, I have always loved summer for one singular reason, it always meant freedom! Not so much now that I am an adult. I am not someone who likes heat, I don't like to sweat, and in this humid weather taming my curly hair is nearly impossible.
I am certian I was made for colder weather, as evidenced by the fact that if I spend more than 10 minutes in the sun I burn and blister. Each time I step into the Texas heat, watch my makeup melt off my face, or put lotion on a fresh sunburn I am reminded that I deeply desire to live in cold weather. I know I am unusual and yet I will admit that there is something to be said for feeling the sun on your face (as long as it is coated in a thick layer of sunscreen!). I only like to feel this feeling when at a Rangers baseball game or in my favorite case, sitting by the pool. In the last few years it was sitting by the pool that I had such sweet times with God. All is quiet and I am warm and comfortable. There is no where to go and nothing to do. I am still on these rare occasions and God begins to speak softly to my racing thoughts and seemingly endless worries.
It would seem that God has always had a way of speaking to his children in the most painfully unbearable of conditions. I believe it is when we are most desperate and likely to listen. No, sitting by the pool is not painful for me, that is unless I forget to reapply the sunscreen! But its very warm and I am very still. His children wandered in the desert, and his son was tested in the wilderness. It would seem that God uses heat to raise our awareness of who he is. This happens physically, emotionally and spiritually to all of us. In Isaiah, chapter 48 the Bible says "Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction."
Maybe that is why I dislike heat so much. I run so hard to avoid pain. I do not run like I once did. In some cases I even face it head on and work through it. But every fiber of my being has the desire to flee from painful circumstances. Sadly, this is when I hear God the best and am now finding myself once again in need of lingering a little longer in the presence of the Son. I need a fresh word from God on life, relationships, and my future. In his presence it is warm, peaceful, not peaceful as the world defines it but a peace that surpasses all understanding. It even surpasses my inevitable sunburn if I linger in his presence so long that I forget to put on more sunscreen!
So, summer, as much as I detest you for the most part. You are a season that I must endure and if I'm smart, learn to enjoy because you speak through all seasons!
