the summer season

Springtime fades into summertime in Mark Buchanan’s book Spiritual Rhythm in which he explores each season of the soul and activities to match. Buchanan describes summer as a foretaste of heaven, pointing out the passage in Mark 13:28-31 where Jesus explicitly equates the kingdom of God with summertime. He draws attention to the things that we associate with summer and so enjoy about it; fruit, warmth, light, rest, play, wonder, festival, joy, reunion, holiday and how these things, Jesus implies, are kingdom experiences. Jesus tells story after story in which the kingdom of heaven is a banquet, a homecoming, a joyful reunion, a festival. In summer the pilgrim experiences vitality, connectedness, rest, and flow. The pilgrim also finds sheer delight in God. One of the temptations that present themselves to the pilgrim in this season is falling into the wiles of nostalgia, which the author describes as misplaced anticipation. He references Ecclesiastes 3: 9-11 in which Solomon speaks of the burden God has laid on the human race and how God set eternity in their hearts. The author beautifully refers to summer as a rumor of heaven, and likens nostalgia to searching for heaven by rummaging through one’s storage closet. The second danger of summer is dehydration and drought. In order to avoid this, the heart of the pilgrim requires continuous inpouring of the Holy Spirit, a deep saturation in the Word, and a life of prayer. The summertime requires one to drink often, and even soak.

The pilgrim’s foremost activity in summer is to enjoy; “to warm up, rest up, and frolic with childlike abandon.” The heart of the pilgrim in summer is not hurried or worried but is marked by leisure and pleasure, a kind of holy hedonism. Summer is both active and restful; the heart feels both deeply alive and deeply relaxed. God is both visible and available in summertime, providing the opportunity to learn the rhythm, the action and inaction, that avails the pilgrim most of His presence. Unlike winter, which requires one to walk by faith and not by sight, in summertime one walks in an abundance of light. Summer also brings an abundance of fruit, and is the time of gathering firstfruits. The pilgrim feels as though God has given him more than he has the capacity to hold. This abundance, however, is increased by giving it away. The kingdom rhythm of summertime is in giving and thanksgiving. The firstfruits belong to God, and the Old Testament repeatedly instructs the Israelites to bring the best of their firstfruits to God. God does not hold back His firstfruits from us but offers His Son, Jesus, for the forgiveness of sins to all and each pilgrim is invited into relationship with this Man, required to give himself in return.