One of the best Sundays of the year is coming up; it is the Sunday after school starts up in our area. Everybody is back from vacation. Our 9:15am Foundations classes start back up again after being on break since early June. Youth ministry starts its regular schedule again soon, and small groups from middle school to adults start waking up from their summer slumbers. We usually have a high Sunday morning attendance this week than others. That’s a bit of an advertisement. Let me address something that is more deeply spiritual than mere activity.
Too much rest and inactivity makes us feel sick inside. It’s like too much of a delicious food or drink. We overdid it, now we feel ill. When I worked at summer camps during college, I often had the month of May off from work. School ended the first week of May, and I had all the time in the world on my hands. I don’t remember it with great joy. I remember growing lazy spiritually during that month. I was stuck between two very active and purposeful times of the year. My friends were from all over the East Coast, and now I was at home. I was so excited to get to work at my summer job. In college, I even looked forward to getting back to school.
This is a different season of the year. This time of year, something feels better. Something inside feels good. Yes, I hear some apprehensions and anxieties from some of our students, some more than others. I definitely hear relief from parents who were seeing some interesting behaviors from their bored kids. Life suddenly has a purpose and direction it didn’t have before. The slow times of summer had their blessings. Many of us wish we could have stayed on vacation, if not indefinitely, then at least another week more than we could afford in the first place. In spite of all of those feelings, there is something that feels right about being back to school, back to work for some of you, back to the routine that exists for most of the year. For us who work at Grace, we feel that same sense of purpose as our efforts to promote growth in the disciples of Jesus at GCC.
Why is there something that feels good about this increase in activity? I think it is because of what we talked about in Genesis. God made us in His image, and He made us for work. We had work to do before sin entered the world. God gave Adam and Eve and Noah work to do after the fall as well. We will get a long rest in the life to come, and whatever tasks we have to do there will be pure joy all the time. Even though our work has its share of thorns and thistles, it also has a deep, God-given purpose to it. The New Testament gives us this instruction:
(Col 3:23-24 ESV) 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.
Whatever God has you doing right now, it is your calling as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Others may demean it or consider it beneath them. It is serving Jesus for you. It is the work of Kings. Enjoy the purpose of Christ for you!
In Him,
Don