We have finally arrived to the point in the year that most teachers have looked ahead to since the previous August... the paintings start to detach from the walls, packets and projects saved for a rainy day go the trash, and day-by-day the classroom begins to sense the impending emptiness. The children are anxious for summer alongside the teachers - that last day of school is looming on the calendar like a far-off, unattainable land where freedom resides with Rest and Sleep.
With early bedtimes and heavy morning eyelids and red-eye weekend flights... I long for a day I can simply sleep past 6am. I look ahead to summer as this time to be filled up - rejuvenated and at peace. When I consider this desperation for summer, I wonder what it is I more deeply long for... a rhythm of life that is sustainable? A time when I no longer answer to 20 children at every moment? I don't want my life to be a series of countdowns... to holidays or breaks or marriage or summer... Is it possible to enter into each day with the fullness and freedom that is so easily found in those blissful summer months? Because this habit of longing will never be completely fulfilled... it will just be replaced with something else.
I look to God as my Sustainer, remembering that He is the One who brings true Rest. True rest is not found in sleeping-in or blank calendar days or collapsing on the couch after school... Rest is only found when we come to Him as the fountain of life... and that can be found everyday, no matter the season or location or job or chaos of the moment.
I desire to make it more of a discipline to Be Still and Know... not just in summer, but each day I can choose to live in Him.
With early bedtimes and heavy morning eyelids and red-eye weekend flights... I long for a day I can simply sleep past 6am. I look ahead to summer as this time to be filled up - rejuvenated and at peace. When I consider this desperation for summer, I wonder what it is I more deeply long for... a rhythm of life that is sustainable? A time when I no longer answer to 20 children at every moment? I don't want my life to be a series of countdowns... to holidays or breaks or marriage or summer... Is it possible to enter into each day with the fullness and freedom that is so easily found in those blissful summer months? Because this habit of longing will never be completely fulfilled... it will just be replaced with something else.
I look to God as my Sustainer, remembering that He is the One who brings true Rest. True rest is not found in sleeping-in or blank calendar days or collapsing on the couch after school... Rest is only found when we come to Him as the fountain of life... and that can be found everyday, no matter the season or location or job or chaos of the moment.
I desire to make it more of a discipline to Be Still and Know... not just in summer, but each day I can choose to live in Him.
Isn't May 10 a bit early to start taking things down from the walls? Just saying... :) I mean, I can certainly relate to excitement about the end of the school year!
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