hello, july.

“It’s almost July, and then things will just…”

I interrupted my friend to let her know it was indeed, July already. We’re two days in, for crying out loud! The summer is practically over.

That is a slight exaggeration, but the point still stands: July is here. June went quick. we’re full in to the summer heat and at the height of “we’re not in school so we can stay up all night.” we just got a box of peaches, we eat ice cream every day, and Daniel shaved his head. What more proof do you need than this?

If you follow me on goodreads, you know that one of the books I’m reading is John Mark Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. I listened to his Practicing the Way sermon series when I was in college, and it was impactful to me as I learned more about spiritual disciplines and how they serve the life of a believer.

As the title insinuates, this book helps identify the constant busyness and pressure we face in today’s world. Between our rampant schedules, our declining attention span, and the amount of distractions we face, it is no wonder that sitting still and resting is so difficult for us.

Within his book, John Mark suggests the rhythms and practices that come from studying and following the way of Jesus. How did Jesus live? How then should we live?

So far, Comer’s book has worked through the disciplines of silence, solitude, and sabbath. Each of these are contrary to our current culture. Each of these things may seem to be a waste of time.

Brett McCracken in his book The Wisdom Pyramid (which I’m also tracking on my goodreads) names the tension we feel between “redeeming the time” (listening to a podcast while I do laundry! Calling my mom! Never wasting a moment to multitask!) and being able to sit still.

He calls sitting still a holy calmness.

How many of us don’t even know how to identify holy calmness in our lives?

John Mark identifies silence not as loneliness, but as eliminating other noise so that we may hear the voice of our father.

Solitude, then, is not isolation, but engagement. Clearing our minds, clearing the air, clearing our spaces so that we can commune with our God.

Sabbath: a day of rest and worship.

Summer. The grounds by which we can waste our days one after the other, or the grounds we use to build new habits and foundations. Once again, this is an exaggeration, but nonetheless — there is much potential in these sunny days to make changes. To practice the way of Jesus, one foot in front of the other.

I wasn’t intending this to be a book review, but I guess these morning pages just have a mind of their own. being more intentional about these practices is something I want to spend more time thinking about, and integrating into my day to day life. There are so many small but significant options here — to turn my phone off until 10am, meal prep so I can rest on Sundays, schedule in margin on my google calendar, choose to sit in silence instead of filling the air with an audiobook or podcast — these are just a few options. Who knows how they will shape out.

All I’m saying is, there is still so much potential wrapped up in this summer — you can only shave your head so many times, you know.