The last strains of ‘O Canada’ have faded, and the fireworks are over. It’s July, and summer is in full swing! After so many years in the classroom, first as a student and then as a teacher, when the calendar turns to July it feels like “the mother of all Fridays”, as one colleague of mine described it. Summer stretches out before me, with a sense of freedom like no other. Although the summer holidays in England were shorter, and definitely cooler, than in Canada, the feeling was the same: September was just a distant dot on the horizon. Summer camps, lakes and cottages were not part of the landscape, but we had the promise of family outings, bike rides and trips to the seaside. For most of us, whether we get to travel or enjoy a “staycation”, summer is a welcome change of pace, and a chance to recharge our batteries. In her previous Thought and Prayer, Arleane gave some great ideas to stay connected spiritually while enjoying some time off from routine.
The only trouble is that, as the years pass, time seems to accelerate, and almost before I know it, those pesky “Back to School” signs appear in stores everywhere. For me, September will always feel like the real start of a New Year rather than January 1st. Sooner or later we have to face the fact that September is just around the corner. Despite the reluctance to gear up for another busy year, there’s something exciting about the prospect of getting ready. I still love wandering the aisles of a stationery department and perusing all the amazing writing tools and notebooks. I look back on all my good intentions as a child when I opened a brand-new exercise book. The first page started with my neatest handwriting…until the first inevitable ink blots appeared from my leaking fountain pen, since ballpoint pens were forbidden. (Does anyone but King Charles III use real ink anymore?) I realize that this is something of a metaphor for the human condition. Even with the best of intentions, we will inevitably “blot our copybooks”.
As Saint Paul puts it in one of his convoluted verses, in Romans 7:18-19, For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. How wonderful that, as his beloved children, God loves us even when we mess up. Nothing we do or don’t do can ever change that. How amazing that Jesus will always listen when we need to confess, and how awesome that we have the Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen us! Every time we confess our mistakes, we are forgiven and it’s a new beginning. Unlike my messy exercise book, the ink blots have been erased and the page is wiped clean.
PRAYER …by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Oh, God, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray and to concentrate my thoughts on you:
I cannot do this alone,
In me there is darkness, but with you there is light,
I am lonely, but you do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but in you there is help;
I am restless, but with you there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;
I do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me…
Restore me to liberty, and enable me to live now
That I may answer before you and before me.
Lord, whatever this day may bring, your name be praised.