Attacking the Summer Doldrums
If you’ve spent any time learning about personal finance from a Christian perspective, you’ve likely run across the name Dave Ramsey. For years I listened to his radio show while commuting. The highlight of the show was when people would call in to let Dave know their creative approaches to destroying their credit cards (to keep themselves from continuing to overspend). Many sent them through the shredder, one had melted them together in the oven to create a credit collage, but the most entertaining was the guy who cut them into tiny pieces, packed them into shotgun shells, and called in so Dave could listen while he fired the shotgun, live on-air, sending the micro-plastic particles into the atmosphere for us all to inhale.
Of more lasting significance was a phrase Dave uttered along the way to a person struggling to get spending under control: “It’s easy to be irresponsible when you don’t know where you stand.” This is true of money (developing a budget), it’s true of fitness (tracking workouts) and diet (counting calories), and it’s true of our time. When you don’t know where you stand, i.e. when you’ve not kept count of your resources, it’s easier to pretend that everything is okay and to be wasteful with what you have.
That’s part of the reason that I’ve been praying over Psalm 90:12 leading into this summer, “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (NIV). Coming off of Vacation Bible School, and headed into a summer where we have reduced church programming, it’s easy to slip into a spiritual malaise, stuck in the doldrums, going through the motions. We all face that at times, so let’s pray that our church moves forward, with wisdom, counting our days, and even our minutes, so that we don’t drop off into apathy, but keep moving forward in health and growth.
Take a moment to pray Psalm 90:12 right now, and ask God to help you use these summer weeks wisely. Pull out your church Bible reading plan and lay it next to your coffee pot so that you will read it tomorrow. Create a short prayer list and put it on top of your phone and pray for 5 minutes before unlocking the device. And of course, since we are studying Proverbs, take a moment to read one chapter in Proverbs each morning this summer.
We are a Bible believing, Gospel-centered church, dependent on the Holy Spirit, and hungry to see God move in our community. May He continue to move at Valley View and use us to reach the South End of Louisville!