Psalm 42:1-2, 7

“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?…

Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.”

I have noticed that around the time I am sick of that close heat characteristic of the South, and when all my flowers and half attempts at gardening are crying out to be finished—that is the time I want a reset.  Not at the beginning of the year when the calendar reads “1” and as the frozen landscape begs nothing but hibernation.  For me, it’s August.  

Somewhere around the end of Easter our family starts to long for “setting things down”.  As a church ministry and homeschooling family, all the activities and full days start to get heavy, and we day dream of bowls full of ice cream, sleeping in and lazy movie marathons.  It’s all rest and it’s all, what we view, a reward for running a long race of serving and learning.  After birthdays (all the kids are summer babies in what we affectionately call a literal “Christmas in July” budget wise) and little spurts of anniversary trips and long weekend vacations, summer camps and sunburns; we all (mostly me) get antsy for a cool breeze and a change of pace.  

August means moving back to college for our oldest.  It’s fresh curriculum and school mornings for our younger two.  It means shifting to look at the fall schedule and all the festivals and retreats and opportunities to love our people well, and grow together through changing leaves and holidays.  It means less ice cream and more yogurt.  Less hours spent on the the couch and more kettlebell deadlifts.

This year, I am also starting again in Genesis and reading through the Bible.  This is a practice I have kept since 2018.  Usually, I begin in January as so many reading plans and guides are tailored for New Year resolutions.  I get off track in summer because of all I mentioned above, and then I dust off (usually Ezekiel) and keep digging through to make it back around come Decembers end.  I didn’t do that this year.  After finishing up the New Testament with my husband around April, I decided to try a topical study on the Fruits of the Spirit.  Using ESV scripture journals especially highlighting these gifts (highly recommend), I made it through “peace” and realized I felt a little at sea (not what you want to sense after studying peace on purpose).  I could feel August and its reset calling me to start again.  

So, that’s what all this ramble is.  

It is also an invitation. 

Maybe, you are like me.  Maybe along with the desire to be chilly enough for a sweater and the urge to start a pot of chili, you have found yourself lacking a depth to your days.  Maybe you need to re-tether yourself to the steady path of God’s Word and find that in the daily walking and wrestling of scripture, you are more known and loved than you ever could imagine.  I think of that Psalm 42 scripture, and how that is really how it feels!  There is a visceral thirst that everyone has, some know its quenching can only be found in the origin.  In the Creator.  There is a Deep that calls to us, and it is the same One that looked out into the deep of nothingness and made everything.  

I believe God wants to remake my days, right in the sticky ache of summers end.  He wants to keep me walking in the right direction when I feel restless and ready for what comes next.  I believe He is inviting me, and maybe you too, to sit and wait with Him as the same story unfolds before us.  The familiar beginning, but by His grace, we get to read it and take it in with new eyes that have gotten a bit older.   With a heart that is (hopefully) surrendered more than the time before.  This time we will find that something came alive on the page that seemed ordinary before.  We will even ask, “Wait?!  That’s in the Bible?  Why have I never read that!?”.  It happens to me every time because this Word is alive.  As He changes me into the likeness of Christ (Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Colossians 3:10) I see the same, unchanging Word watering and bringing new challenges and growth.  I see God weaving and connecting all of history for His glory and my good.  Don’t we need that in this mean world we live in?    

Starting August 1st, let’s clear the summer crop and prepare the soil for the next season (hypothetically—I mean, the tomatoes are just getting good up here in Virginia!).  Let’s get out our journals and trusty Bibles and start again.  My plan is to begin in Genesis and work my way through the whole bible, a chapter a day.  I will post Monday through Friday, with observations and reflections, words that jump out to me, connecting scriptures and some questions that I am asking myself.  Saturdays will be for catching our breath and catching up, and Sundays for resting.

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I look forward to meeting with you, no matter where you may be, in scripture.  May we lean in to the ways that only His word can shape us.  May we find ourselves different when we reach that revelatory end.  May the fruit of this endeavor bring Him praise!