Summer

All these good-byes…  It’s depressing.  In high school, everyone always looked forward to summer because it meant no more school, no more homework, and plenty of free time to spend with friends and family.  But in college, where homework is optional and you practically live with your friends whose homes are hours away, you begin to dread summer.  Well, it’s not really dread, but you stop looking forward to it so much.  You can’t just drive to the local park to hang out with your friends because some of them live halfway across the state and others live in completely different states.

But I want to get out of this mindset.  Maybe driving long distances isn’t as big of a deal for me anymore because I went on that 23-hour road trip a few weeks ago (and I wasn’t the one paying for it), but I’m looking forward to traveling to visit people.  Plus, being home means I get to spend time with all my friends from high school who either go to other colleges or are still in high school.  (Until this year, I never really hung out with people outside of school/band, so now that I’ve seen how great it is, I’m looking forward to actually getting out of the house and doing stuff this summer.)

And especially for everyone who’s been involved with campus ministries, specifically the Wesley Foundation here at UGA, the summer is an opportunity for individual growth.  Throughout this year, we Freshley kids have been growing together, meeting lots of new Christian friends and learning about God through each other and with each other through the Wesley/Freshley leaders.  We’re around each other so much that there’s very little we can hide.  When we learn something new, we’re very rarely alone in the matter, and we just can’t keep it to ourselves—we have to share it with someone.  Our friends see our gradual growth throughout the year.  But this summer is a chance for us to grow on our own.  For three months, we get a chance to grow with other friends and by ourselves with God.  Plus, we get to share everything we’ve learned this year with all our friends back home.  And come fall, we’ll get to come back completely new in Christ.  We’ll have a whole summer’s worth of experiences and learning to share with each other, and we’ll be able to encourage and teach each other in ways we never could have if we had been learning the same things together year-round.

So come back next fall with stories to tell, lessons to teach, friends to reunite with, and a God to praise!  Make good use of your phone/Facebook, and make the most of these next twelve weeks of summer.  It’s all for God’s glory!