The end of summer means one thing for most of us: back to school. It's time to go...back. The vacations, the pool parties, the late nights and even later morning wake-ups are mostly over for a little while. Some people welcome this time. Others hope Jesus returns before they have to go back, or at least hold out hope for the school to flood and delay the start.
Some are going for the first time, some for the last time. For those of us no longer in school, this season fills us with nostalgia, the unique memories tied to starting school. I can distinctly remember the excitement of getting a new lunch box (Batman, of course!) and the smell of opening new school supplies. And it never ceases to amaze me how many things we try to cram into that first day (which for some reason always begins in the middle of the week). Class breakfasts, first-day photos, club kickoffs, team meetings: all of it begins at the crack of dawn. Then there's the mad rush of the first-day car line that somehow disappears after the first week. What a day!
Along with the busyness of this day comes a wave of different emotions. As a parent, I tend to reflect on these moments far more than I ever did as a kid or teenager. As you grow older, you realize you only have so many of these days: these moments, these memory-building, social-media-posting, nostalgia-generating events that our kids have no idea they'll look back on for decades.
My simple question is this: what are we supposed to feel about back-to-school? We could list many knee-jerk emotions, and depending on where you find yourself on the back-to-school map, you'll feel something different from others. But what might God have us feel when seasons like this occur? What should be our response when seasons of life hit us that are largely outside of our control? We might have differing opinions on the best approach to education, but I think virtually everyone agrees that we at least need education! That being the case, we are all essentially in the same boat with back-to-school. It is here, and we have to respond to it.
This is something like what the writer of Ecclesiastes was talking about when he wrote, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance..." (Ecclesiastes 3:1-4). At first glance, you might think the author is celebrating different seasons of life, as in the popular Byrds' hit "Turn! Turn! Turn!" However, a more likely interpretation is that the author is admitting that most of life is out of our hands. Seasons come and go. We can't choose when seasons of weeping, dancing, planting, or uprooting come. We look up, find ourselves in a new season, and aren't certain how we got there.
When the seasons of life change—and they will—how will we respond? As I've pondered my own heart in this back-to-school season, I've landed on four emotions we need to deal with. Two we need to resist and two we need to cultivate.
Two Emotions To Resist
The first emotion we need to resist can best be described as indifference. What do I mean? I mean a posture that looks at back-to-school as just the way it is: business as usual, life goes on. Those of us who know and follow Jesus should view all of time, every moment, as meaningful and worthy of our attention. Indifference takes time for granted. It deceives us into thinking we have unlimited time, which we don't. Indifference is what causes us to look up and say to ourselves, "Where did the time go?!" Time moves too quickly for us not to think carefully about how we spend it. We don't have time to be indifferent! Students, guard against this as a new semester starts. Dream about your future. Ask God for big things. Chase a vision for your life that counts and blesses others. Parents, treasure these times and dream for your kids. Imagine what God might do through them. Resist indifference.
The second emotion to resist is fear. Strangely enough, our part of the world is as safe as it's ever been. Few of us have to worry about war, starvation, plagues, and famine. And yet, at the same time, we may be more afraid than we've ever been. Some have called Gen Z (born 1997-2012) "the anxious generation," but I would argue that many of us across all generations carry an unhealthy level of anxiety about the future. Parents worry about their children's safety, popularity, making the team, getting a scholarship, and success. Students are impacted by the secondhand anxiety of their parents and add even more layers of unhealthy fear themselves. We must fight this. Our God is good and near (Psalm 46:1). He loves us and never lets go of our hand (John 10:28). We can trust Him. Let us fight fear, worry, dread, and anxiousness with His precious and very great promises (2 Peter 1:3-4).
Two Emotions To Cultivate
The two emotions we can work to cultivate this season are closely related but somewhat distinct. The first is joy. Joy is something we can feel on purpose. It's not something that merely comes and goes like an ocean tide. Sure, we feel lighter and happier on some days than others, but joy for the Christian can function like a thermostat. When life heats up, so to speak, our joy can kick in and move us through difficult circumstances. All of us have different temperaments and dispositions, but each of us can choose to walk forward with joy. The Bible even commands our joy. "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice" (Philippians 4:4). What if we approached each day, each class, each commute, each breakfast, even each test (!), with the aim of enjoying it? A verse that helps me with this is found in Proverbs. "All the days of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast" (Proverbs 15:15). What if, rather than seeing each day as out to get us, we saw all of life as a feast we get to enjoy? I confess I have to fight for this most days. Trust me, it does not come naturally. But I think I've made progress over the years in this, though I have a long way to go. What about you? What would it look like to grab onto joy in this season and never let it go? Do we trust that Jesus will supply enough of it for us to face any circumstance? I invite you to try it!
Second, urgency. That might sound counterintuitive to joy, but I assure you it's not. To be clear, what I have in mind is a happy urgency: one that does not use force, manipulation, or guilt, but one that deeply trusts in the reality of who Jesus is while feeling the weight and severity of the task before us. You don't have to look far to see that people around you are struggling. Everyone needs someone to encourage them, to take up for them. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle. Will we see them? Will we go to them? We want our lives to count. We want to be useful in God's hands, and this requires us to feel the unique burden and responsibility of wading into the brokenness around us.
Students, as you encounter your classmates and teammates, keep your eyes open for ways God might use you. Parents, as you bus kids around, attend practices and games, and interact with teachers and other parents, ask God to help you pause, lift your gaze a bit, and notice what more He might have for you as you sit in that parking lot for the practice that never ends.
Summer is over. School is back. It's okay. Embrace it. Enjoy it. Imagine what it could look like.