“A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son brings grief to his mother. Ill-gotten treasures have no lasting value, but righteousness delivers from death. The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked. Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son. Blessings crown the head of the righteous, but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked. The name of the righteous is used in blessings, but the name of the wicked will rot. The wise in heart accept commands, but a chattering fool comes to ruin. Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.”
– Proverbs 10:1-9
Ahh… those old ‘proverbial’ phrases… especially verse five of the tenth chapter of the book of Proverbs… “He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.” I suppose that works for daughters, too… as the writer fleshes out the paradoxes of this world… like someone recently made the distinction between living ‘in tension’ and living with ‘intension’. The small space makes all the difference.
So… welcome to Summer! It is officially here… and what about that mystery? Is it that summer is a mystery? Or is it the fact that summer is a season and the season contains the mystery… then asking the question … ‘what season is it actually?’ Or … even more specific… ‘what time is it now?’ Do we know? Do we care?
Jesus said it this way … “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:37-38). That’s the paradox. Summer is for rest and relaxation… to take a break from school and our jobs… to catch our proverbial breath because we know good and well there’s more work to do… getting ready for what’s next…and then there’s that question… ‘are we living in the last days?’ Maybe. Maybe everyday is the ‘last day.’ Or maybe we ought to live our lives as if that were true… as most folks I know want to go out with a bang rather than a whimper… wanting to participate in the work of the harvest… not missing out on the party… rather than taking a nap when there is important stuff to do… it’s what the word ‘religious’ actually means… to help pick up the broken pieces and put them back together… and when I take a hard look at the world around me… there sure is enough brokenness to keep us busy way past Summer and into the Fall…
In a recent zoom Bible study I participate in… we were deep into the chapters of Genesis… that ‘in the beginning’ book that launches what some call the Torah or the Old Testament… when one participant asked… ‘what’s the point of all this… all these stories…?” to which one other person present said… “think of the first five books of the Old Testament as an image of human life… Genesis would be the gestation period where the Hebrew people were cataloging answers to all the ‘beginnings’ people experience and the Exodus follows as a ‘birthing’ narrative where an identity would come to pass… making the book of Leviticus reflect a time of ‘infancy’ where God’s people learned to walk and grow with proper nourishment… leading to Numbers… God’s way of helping a chosen people work their way through ‘childhood’ testing boundaries and discovering what is right and wrong and good and bad… leaving the book of Deuteronomy as a story of ‘adulthood’… a coming of age and leaving a legacy for those who come after…”
How’s that for an answer? How’s that for embracing some summer mystery? What other questions do you have this Summer? Send me one at the email address below! Faith matters… because we all believe in something…
