I love September.
September is the month when my spirit – having suffered from heat exhaustion – starts to breathe a sigh of relief. I was born in North Carolina, and now live in Tennessee – which means I have lived most of my life in the South. Many times when people think of Southern summers – they envision shady porches with elegant glass pitchers of fresh, cold lemonade accompanied by a heavenly breeze. That’s nice.
But, sometimes – most of the time – Southern Summers are just incredibly….HOT.
Thankfully, God has provided an antidote for Southern Summer Syndrome – that would be September. Around Labor Day, the sky starts to take on a clearer blue, and the sun casts a different light creating more distinctly defined shadows. The humidity, we have begrudgingly accepted as a necessary evil – begins to dissipate, and is replaced with clear, lung-friendly air. Those afore-mentioned porches, once avoided or vacated due to unbearable steamy heat, get another chance to charm their visitors – who now return to their rockers to drink in the welcome changes this beloved month brings.
I was born in September, but that surely cannot be the reason I love this month so. I have thought about it and concluded that it is a month of restoration. September puts something back that the summer heat took away.
Please understand – I am not anti-Summer. I enjoy the break from normal routine, the garden veggies, the vacations, the grilled burgers and dogs, and the abundant flowers and freshly mowed lawns. Quite simply – it’s the heat that gets me. This relentless heat that begins to take its toll by mid-August. Then, just in the nick of time, September comes and wilted souls rally.
Sometimes life is like mid-August in Tennessee. It’s been too long since we felt a light cool breeze, and we begin to think the oppressive heat will never subside. The spring in our step is replaced with a tired shuffle as we long for a change in the sky – even the slightest hint that a new season could be dawning.
In Peter’s writings, there is a promise – “After you have suffered a little while – He himself will restore you, make you strong and steadfast.” Yes…After August, comes September. Thirty days of refreshing, restorative, reassurance.
Bring it on.
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