Better Than February

Summer is for more than recreation. It is for re-creation. Even as the ground and the nests teem with new fruitfulness, so summer can be a time for us to be “re-created”, renewed, revitalized—a new fruitfulness.

Summer is much better than the winter months for such things. In January we make our resolutions for new lives and then struggle through January into February to make all those changes. Give up comfort food and get up early for exercise? In February? Can anything good come out of February?

Summer is far more strategic to seek re-creation. Days are longer. The pace is slower. Attitudes are made positive by sun and warmth.

Seek re-creation this summer.

James K.A. Smith has an interesting book, Desiring the Kingdom. He explores how our habits and practices make up a “liturgy of life”. He then explains how such a liturgy of life (habits and practices) shape our desires toward some version of human flourishing.

Think about your daily habits and practices: what you eat, how you exercise, what you read or watch, what you do for entertainment, how you work, how you connect with others, where you shop, what you do for fun and so on. What are those habits and practices leading you to? How do they shape not only who you are but what you desire?

Stretch them all out for 10 years. Where will you be? Is that where you want to be? Is that what you want to be? To what kind of human flourishing do they lead to? Is it a flourishing consistent with Jesus and his Kingdom?

You might say that we are all liturgical creatures. We follow habits and practices that both reflect and shape what we are and, more importantly, what we desire. The Church has known this. The Church and its congregations develop habits and practices that are to reflect our relationship with God and build a desire for him and his kingdom.* Liturgy in the Church, our habits and practices, does far more than rehearse the past; it shapes us, forms us, and directs us toward flourishing in our relationship with Jesus.

So spend some time this summer examining and honing your daily habits and practices with an eye toward re-creation. What do you do or don’t do and why? What do you do or don’t do and where does that lead? Reflect. Think. Pray. Experiment.

If you want to develop different habits and practices, Atomic Habits by James Clear is terrific. If you want to explore in greater detail what liturgy of life and human flourishing are about, read Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom.

And keep in mind that in a sense there is no real distinction between sacred and secular. All of your habits and practices are leading you to and building a desire for some religious end. It may or may not be the Biblical Christian faith, but it will be to some religious end.

Have a great summer. See a ball game. Go on a picnic. Sit by a lake. Enjoy a BBQ. And spend some time seeking re-creation. Indeed, summer is more conducive for such an undertaking than February.

*It is unfortunate that summer, which is a great time for re-creation through examining and honing our habits and practices of life, is a time that we get lax in our habits and practices of worship, Bible study and prayer.