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It’s summer. Here in Chicago, our daytime
high temps shot from the 50s and 60s to the
80s within a few days—which is typical.
By the time you read this my daughter will
have graduated from 8th grade, my
son from elementary school. Soccer season
will end this week, and classes and other
activities are finally winding down. Today I
am trying to finish this newsletter while
preparing to have my in-laws over to attend
graduation.
Summer can be a time when things actually do
settle down—or not. We get sucked into the
trap of thinking summer is endless and put
off what we really want to do. We see wide
open days and rush to fill them, rather than
relish them.
Try to keep summer as slow as you can. How?
Choose very carefully what you say yes and
no to. If someone asks you to do something
you don’t want to do, and your only plans
are to putter in the garden, simply say,
“I’m sorry, I have plans.” The more you say
no to busyness, the more leisurely your
summer will be. That’s hardly a profound
statement—if you’re not busy, you’ll be
leisurely. But how many of us can actually
do the hard work of saying no?
Don’t sign your kids up for too much, if you
can help it. If they are old enough to work
at a job like babysitting or lawn-mowing,
have them do that.
And also, explore the spiritual discipline
of solitude.
With the kids home from school, solitude is
harder to find. But not impossible. I love
solitude in summer because I can enjoy it
outside—in the garden, in a park, during a
walk by the lake. Just watching loons dive,
re-surface, flap their wings dry and do it
all over—that’s a worship experience for me.
I can find solitude in a sidewalk cafe in
the city, surrounded by strangers, even. God
is everywhere—on a mountaintop and on a city
street.
Solitude as a spiritual practice is not just
being alone, but being alone with God.
Spending one-on-one time with the God can
feel intimidating. You wonder—will I feel
God’s presence? Will I know what to do?
Focus on this: the God who made all the
beauty of summer loves you with a radical,
deep and overwhelming love, and desires your
company.
God created the beauty of summer flowers and
singing birds, in part, because he knew you
would find joy in it. And in part, because
he finds joy in it. And the joy God finds in
his own creation, and the joy you find in
it, is just something you have in common.
Appreciating beauty is part of what it means
to bear the image of God. He set the earth
in its orbit, just perfectly, so that we
would have seasons and warmth. The next time
you say, “Wow, what a beautiful summer day!”
remember who came up with the idea of beauty
and summer in the first place, and then
arranged the solar system in such a way that
we could experience. That same God wants to
simply be with you.
We often have what I call a cell-phone
relationship with God. We call him when we
want something—a favor, or a little help, or
to lodge a complaint. Sometimes we call to
thank him or just say hi, but even then,
we’re talking while we’re on the run. It’s
not bad to keep in touch with God however we
can. Some communication is better than none
at all. And in fact, we often keep in touch
with friends and family via similar
communication—quick calls on the run.
Or we get into a rules-focused faith, where
we just try to do stuff for God, to impress
him or to mitigate our sin a bit. We have a
performance-based relationship, which
assumes God’s love is conditional.
But a truly deep relationship is not based
on what we do for the other person. An
abiding friendship can’t be maintained with
only occasional quick calls asking for
favors. Close, intimate relationships need
unhurried time. Time where we put away the
cell phone and sit on the front porch,
enjoying both conversation and comfortable
silence. Front porch conversations are
leisurely. They’re more about time spent
than words spoken.
 Last
weekend I put some bright blue plastic
chairs on my small front porch. I potted up
some pink impatiens and stacked them around
the chairs. I found a great sisal rug to put
out there. It’s my new sanctuary, a place to
sit and watch the world go by, a place to
invite a friend to sit and have a glass of
iced tea on a hot summer day and just relax.
The porch also serves as a reminder, every
time I walk through my front door, to make
some time for summer solitude—to carve out
time to be alone with a God who loves me. A
God who appreciates what I try to do to
serve, but mostly, just wants to be with me.
Book Reviews
 The
Year of Living Biblically
By A.J. Jacobs
Simon & Schuster
Retail Price: $25.00
Amazon Price: $16.50
It’s so interesting how many different
“lifestyles” people can choose, and all of
them will say they are living “biblically.”
People who say the Bible is literally true
and is a guide for living abound, and of
course, they interpret the scriptures
differently.
I even read a newspaper interview with a
polygamist family that said one reason for
their “lifestyle” is that it is
“biblical”—since Jacob, Solomon and other
patriarchs had multiple wives.
You may throw up your hands and say, “That’s
not biblical!” Well, the fact is, it’s in
the Bible. And God blessed polygamists,
never said anything about how marrying more
than one woman is wrong. Now, there are
Christians who say that the New Testament
supercedes the Old Testament, but that’s not
exactly accurate. I mean, we still have both
parts of the Bible, with all their
complexity and admitted strangeness. How do
we decide which parts to follow and which
parts no longer apply?
So when I heard about A.J. Jacobs’ book
The Year of Living Biblically, I was
curious. I knew that Jacobs’ point was that
living according to every law in the Old and
New Testament is actually very difficult, if
not impossible.
The book chronicles a year in which the
author tried to follow every commandment in
the Bible. He tried to take the whole thing
literally and obey all the rules. He wore
clothes only made of one type of fabric,
i.e. no cotton-poly blends (in accordance
with Leviticus 19:19), and in which he grew
out his beard and the hair on the side of
his head (following Leviticus 19:27). He ate
kosher and avoided sitting on chairs his
wife had sat in during certain days of the
month (see Leviticus 15: 19-30).
Jacobs is not a Christian, he’s Jewish by
background, and his approach to the Bible
comes from that perspective: he’s very
focused on trying to obey all the rules. But
he’s also checking his attitude, and trying
to pray (a practice which is new to him).
The book is at times touching, at times
laugh-out-loud funny, always
thought-provoking.
I really enjoyed this book and it made me
think. If you are the type of person who
says that the Bible is your guidebook for
living, I challenge you to read this book.
Quotable Quote
"If we look with the right eyes, listen with
the right ears, we will understand the
natural creation as a form of sign language
through which God expresses Himself."
~Ken
Gire, Windows of the Soul
Deeper Connection
Set some
dates on your summer calendar for
solitude—mark them in as unbreakable
appointments. Do what you need to do in
order to keep these appointments with God.
Connecting with Keri: Speaking
Keri is not available for speaking
engagements during the summer.
Keri will lead a retreat for the Women’s
Christian Conference of Northwest
Pennsylvania Sept. 12-13 in Saegertown, PA.
She will be in
Southern California for the week of October
13, 2008. If you are in that area and are
interested in having Keri speak, you can go
to
www.keriwyattkent.com
and click on the link to speaking. Besides
the week in California, Keri is currently
accepting speaking engagements for November
2008 and beyond.
Connecting with Keri: Web
Check out Keri’s blog,
Deep Breathing for the Soul, at
www.keriwyattkent.blogspot.com
You can read Keri’s latest musings on the
connection between faith and real life, you
can post a question about any of her books
or other writings.
Keri posts each
Thursday on
www.boomerbabesrock.com/blog.
She writes about faith, family and fun on
this site dedicated to women of the baby
boom generation.
If you are a parent or work with kids, and
feel like you are always pouring out, click
over to Keri’s “For Your Soul” column
http://www.christianitytoday.com/childrensministry/articles/
and get filled up. This column, written
for those who minister to children, will
give you encouragement and practical help
with nurturing your own soul.
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