Ahhh summer at last

Summer has come to Sweden. This cold country has warmed up to the point where a few minutes ago I heard someone in the distance doing a karaoke of the George Gershwin Song, “Summertime”. Let’s see, “Summer time and the living is easy, fish are jumping and the cotton is high…” Yes, the person I heard singing did butcher the song, but being a Southerner my self raised in Florida, the song still brought back good memories for me.

I love summer here in Sweden. Growing up in Florida the sun was an enemy. Here in Sweden the sun is definitely a friend. You don’t always see it a lot and when it comes you feel like dropping everything else you are doing and just enjoy it. I once heard about missionaries who lived in the jungles working with tribal people. In the middle of an important moment when the missionary was talking with a native and felt like he was really getting some place a bee would fly by and everything would stop because the natives wanted the honey and so they left everything (including the conversation) and went after the bee. Well that’s the way it is with summer here. When summer comes you just want to enjoy it. Soon the warm days of summer will be over and winter will come again. If you don’t take the time to enjoy it, it is all gone.

A lot of life is that way if you think about it. The older I get the more I realize that if I don’t take the time to do something I really want to do right now I might not ever do it. Sometimes in life you just have to stop what you are doing and take the time to do the things you really want to do. I have read e-mails that were sent to me where someone wrote saying that if they had life to live over again they would spend more time doing this or that. I hope that I won’t have to write such an e-mail at the end of my life. I want to enjoy life today and at the same time plan for tomorrow.

The Bible verse that I think about today is Psalm 37:4 where the Psalmist writes, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” When the sun shines I need to take the time to enjoy it, but I can’t control when it shines. It comes and goes when it wills. But I can delight myself in the Lord. This is one thing that I can control. No, I can’t control the Lord, but I can take the time each day to delight myself in Him. When I delight myself in Him He promises to give me the desires of my heart. Wow, that sounds even better than a sunny Swedish summer.