Your Life is Not Summer

The following is a journal entry from April 16, 2006... nearly a month before I graduated from college. At the time, I shared my thoughts on this with Jenn & Jen, and one of them asked me to post something about it. So here it is... edited for publication. =)

Your Life is Not Summer.

I realized in talking on the phone with a friend yesterday that I can’t live my life after graduation as though I’m on summer break. Sure—I usually work every summer and have gotten involved at church, worked out, and read books… but I’ve also relaxed, watched too much TV, and have often lived in a very self-focused manner. It’s not that relaxing is bad or that life can’t be enjoyed. But during summer I usually had the mentality that I was always headed back to school—headed back to a more regulated and disciplined life—a life that would be filled with studying and learning and deep conversations with good friends… a life with a great church and great ministry opportunities that were desirable and fun to fill.
But now, as I finish up and head into summer, I don’t want to get stuck in the “summer mentality.” In fact, I don’t even want the summer mentality for the summer. I wish in retrospect that I never had the summer mentality. What I want, as graduation nears and “real life” looms is a life mentality… the sense of urgency and discipline that we should live by as we realize that we are only given one life; it is to be for God’s glory alone; and it is short. The most tragic thing that I can think of is that I would “wake up” when I turn 50 and realize that I’d been playing with life and doing nothing that mattered. It would be a tragic thing if I chose to live it for my own pleasure, my own comfort, if I made my decisions based on my feelings. It would be wasted. That would be a deep tragedy, because life is something that we can never get back. We have one shot—one shot at this hour, this day, this week, this month, this year, this LIFE. It is irretrievable and yet we will be held accountable for each bit of it.
And so as I enter the joys of the summer months—the joys of sunshine, the beach, travel, family, relaxation, and more—I can truly rejoice in these times for they are a blessing from the LORD. But spiritually, it’s not summer—it’s not vacation… nor should it ever be. If I have the tendency to drift and let loose, then I should gird up my heart and mind more than ever. The summer is not a time to coast spiritually. I must still be a good steward with my time. I must continue to make purposeful choices. I must continue to learn what it means to deny my fleshly desires. I need to make decisions on what is pleasing to my heavenly Father—not what is pleasing to what I “feel” like.
Life for Jesus is here and now and demands action and discipline and the quest to know Him—the journey for godliness. And this journey doesn’t take summers off… it’s every moment of our lives until we breathe our last.
I must ever remember what this life is about… and that my life is not summer.

The summer months approach quickly,
But in my heart and mind,
May they never be.

-posted by jodi