At 74 years old it is a similar reaction. After a warm summer day....(in this case a warm spring day)....in the cool of the evening....as Tennyson penned...."A young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." Well that may be the way it is for a young man....I seem to remember that.....but as an old man....on an evening like tonight....after a warm day....and a delightful evening coolness....as I stood outside....my thoughts turned to judgment....wrath!
I can explain that folks if you give me time. What I am going to describe is nothing new to man. I'm sure that's Augustine experienced it....and David....and Luther and Edwards and all the rest. I met a friend on the street just today.....who lives with his elderly mother....in her high 90s. I asked how she was doing and he said that the mornings are bad.....but as soon as the sun comes out....she is happy. Weather has a way of doing that to us. I'm a bit odd in that also....for a summer morning on the cool side with a clouded sky and a gentle mist is what makes me happy. I can immediately transport myself to a dock....with boats rocking back and forth....and the smell of sea water in the air....with the sounds of seagulls somewhere.
This is no small thing....no small problem. By all rights....with what God has revealed to us from His word over the past fifty or so years....and in this information age that informs us with what should be enough evidence to see that the entire world is heading off to oblivion....love replaced by hate....and tranquility by anger....and the sound of war drums in the air....all it takes is an evening like tonight....and the thoughts of the summer ahead....with all the entertainments and excitements that we have planned.....to make us totally forget all of God's warnings that previously somehow may have made its way to our ears or our minds!
I can give you one piece of evidence to support what I'm saying. Sundays....(I can't use the Lord's Day here for the term is archaic and even offensive)....Sundays are genuine days of rest....not rest from the world that God's Word tells us about....but rest from the bigger plans....work and errands and spring cleaning....to a family and personal rest....a brunch or a dinner with family....walks in the park....reading on the patio with a lemonade....those types of rest. The visits to these posts of mine are always less on Sundays....for in spite of going to church....which is more of a restful entertainment in itself....my viewership is drastically curtailed every Sunday. I expect it...and it never fails. (except visitors from Israel....that today were more than visitors from America)
So....as I stood outside this evening....after a cold spring....with that balmy breeze making me feel so comfortable....I wound up praying for God to have mercy upon us....not to let us be tempted by the pleasant evening air....and the thoughts of....as the smooth as silk voice of Nat King Cole put it in his 1963 hit song...."Those Lazy-Crazy-Hazy Days Of Summer."
Fifty years ago I would have been hooked. I can even transport myself back then for a moment. Thirty years ago....as a Christian....I would have looked to a wonderful summer ahead. Ten years ago....( I would have been five years into these posts)....I enjoyed it but was unaffected as to being overcome by it....and today....I can only....as I mentioned above....pray that God would gently but surely wake us up....wake our pulpits up....so that we might see very clearly that which transcends seasons and personal goals....honorable as they might be.
This is not 1975 where our biggest concern in America was inflation. This is 2024....existentially like nothing I ever experienced....with war an almost certainty....and a war like none other at that....with the earth itself shaking....and the cosmos as if spitting fire....Israel on the precipice....and tempests of all sorts forming a perfect storm. So Lord....when that storm comes....let us not be like your disciples in the boat....let us be like Paul and Silas....praying and singing praises in jail! Give us your Holy Spirit to see the Kingdom....and to pray...."Hallowed be Thy name....Thy kingdom come...and Thy will be done....on earth....as it is in heaven!"
