The last week of summer and learning to welcome change
As summer fades, it can be hard to let go of slower days and familiar rhythms. This reflective column explores the bittersweet shift toward fall and the opportunities it brings for renewed purpose and ministry.
- Seasonal change can stir both gratitude and sadness.
- School-year schedules reshape time, pace, and attention.
- Fall offers fresh openings for churches to teach, serve, and help families.
By Mark A. Taylor
The last week of summer.
Letting go of summer
The words have a melancholy ring. Are we really ready to put away lawn chairs and citronella candles, beach balls and Bermuda shorts? Can we muster any enthusiasm for the sweaters and coats on display in the stores? Is it possible even to face the first Christmas catalogs? (The holiday is just less than 18 weeks from today.)
My life in the Midwest has given me a comfort with the changing seasons. I would not want an endless summer. I love the chilly nights of autumn and the slowdown of mowing grass and pulling weeds.
But in the last week of August, sometimes I’m not yet ready to let go.
I keep my eye on the outdoors. I know I’d enjoy escaping the confines of our kitchen to eat outside. But come September, even when it’s still warm, my wife and I usually don’t take time.
Maybe time is the issue, a much bigger factor than the temperature.
My wife is a teacher, so, even in our empty nest, we still live on a school-year schedule. The pace of life quickens, the alarm goes off earlier, and the to-do lists lengthen. The time to linger seems to fade with the roses in my garden. Each August I know this is coming, and I don’t like it.
Younger parents, with kids still at home, are usually eager to send them back to school. And, truth be told, most of the kids are ready for a little more routine too. Of course, some school systems have already been in session for weeks. And some meet year-round, with six-week breaks sprinkled throughout the calendar. Can such schedules diminish end-of-season sadness? I wonder.
Welcoming fall’s opportunities
Church leaders have been planning fall programs all summer long. In most parts of our continent, churches see higher attendances come September, so teachers and sponsors are ready to seize the opportunity. Think of the lessons to be taught, the songs to be sung, the lives to be touched, and the families to be helped by churches in the next few months! That’s plenty enough reason to be glad summer is almost over.
And thankfully, where I live at least, autumn is a gentle escort into winter. As if God knows change is hard for all of us, September mornings still shine, and sunny afternoons beckon.
I can enjoy walks with my wife without needing a jacket. I will coax a little more beauty from my garden. And I’ll ponder the mystery and marvel of God’s good gift of life in a world where each season offers reminders of his power and his love.
This column is adapted from one that first appeared August 24, 2005.
Author: Mark A. Taylor
Mark A. Taylor, who served as Christian Standard editor from 2003 to 2017, retired in June 2017 after almost 41 years with Standard Publishing (Christian Standard Media).
