Tuesday, June 7, 2016

My Love For June

I love the month of June for the many topics she inspires.

High School graduation is a major one. Schools all across America will say good-bye this month to thousands of young people who are about to find out how good they have really had it.
Now I do know that not all young people have have it made as many have faced struggles that no kid should ever have to deal with. However, life is definitely about to change for many people. Saying good-bye to friends who have been there and helped you through some tough times and have laughed a thousand laughs with you is going to be very difficult.
Walking out of that school one more time, this time knowing that if you ever walk back in for any reason it will never mean what it has meant for the last few years.
There will be teachers who you owe a great deal to and others who you would like to unload on, but now they are in the rear view mirror.
So, to you, congratulations and Godspeed!

Then there is Father's Day. Woo hoo! Dads get their day! A new tie, a bag of kit kats and a home-made card. It's a great day! Maybe your favorite meal and definitely some "do-nothing" time.
Okay, that days over, next topic!

Summer officially starts. Hot days, rainy weekends, horse flies and grass to cut. Cook outs on the grill, days at the beach and longer periods of sunlight! Vacations, baseball and weddings. I always wondered why the most popular month of the year for weddings, where everyone seems to wear extra clothes, happen in one of the hottest months of the year. 
I love strawberries on a hot biscuit, fire-flies flashing in the dark and children playing outside. Shorts and flip flops and tank tops. Visits to the ice cream shop and cantaloupe and fresh peaches.

June also gives us Flag Day which doesn't seem to have the same bang it did years ago. I love the flag and I'm glad there is a day set aside just for Old Glory! 

June begins the time of year for Vacation Bible Schools in neighborhood churches and dinner on the grounds. Okay, if mind hits the ground I aint eating it but you get the idea.

One of my favorite things about June is how nicely she introduces us to July. I really love July. More heat, more cookouts, more flag and more ice cream. Thank you June!

Summer was always a favorite time for me. It was a time to sharpen and utilize my imagination. There were lots of wars to win and Indians to chase and villains to catch. Sometimes I would slow down long enough to catch a doodlebug or chase a butterfly and just hang out with my dog.

Later years were filled with pick up games and hanging out with friends and cruising the strip. If you lived in my home town, cruising the strip could burn, oh three, maybe four minutes. But it was great and all of those things live right in my mind never to be disturbed. They are a great asset.

June is also the  month of starting Summer Camp. I love summer camp and planned to go this year but our week for camp conflicted with family plans so I had to back out. But I have been to my share of summer camps as an adult and as a teenager. I have been the Camp Pastor for a Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) camp of over five hundred teens and one with less than one hundred teens. I have chaperoned camps that were high energy and exhausting. I have played games as an adult that adults are not designed to play. 
As a teen camp was always lots of fun and many great friendships were fashioned in those experiences.

But there is one camp in June that sticks out above them all. It was in 1969 (the best I can recall) and it was in the hills of North Carolina. It had been a fun week filled with lots of adventures. This particular event happened on the last night of Camp as we would return home the next day. No doubt by design that was the night that we attended an out door chapel service by the lake with a fire and a cross. We did that every night, but this night, the last night is when they shared a very specific message. I do not remember a word that was said or who said it that night. But I do remember a tugging at my heart and an inability to stay put as I moved from my split log bench and walked to the front where the fire and the cross was. It was that night that I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ.

My life has not been perfect and I have messed up many, many times. My life in Christ is a work in progress and His incredible grace is more than sufficient to cover all my failures. 
But since that hot Thursday night in June about 47 years ago my life has not been the same and my eternity is set and secure!

So I wish you a Happy June


10 comments:

Unknown said...

June is when the water in GODS Ocean gets warm. Yahoo no more wet suits the waves embraces you. Instead of giving you brain freezes or ice cream headaches. All part of cold water surfing but we don't have two worry about that ITS JUNE ! June the first month where you realize the days last for ever, so does the warm waves. You can get to the beach after work and get three hours of waves, if you don't mind catching silent shadows that appear out nowhere sent by GOD to finish your day with Grace, Love and HIS Power. Time to scurry on home to the family the boys hear me pull in and meet me at the door the first words that come tumbling out of their mouths are " DAD HOW WERE THE WAVES !" They were warm and fun I was surfing with GOD HE WAS GREAT ! I will take you guys tomorrow HE SAID it will better for Zach and Zane after all its JUNE and the Water is Warm Yahoo ! Amen ! Gary M Reynolds

Pastor James said...

You should write a blog.

NYEngineer said...

I never knew you had these series of blogs here. Reading through them takes me back in time. A time that now seems more simple than now. It's funny how when we were kids and growing into young adults how we "couldn't wait to grow up and be grown ups". Being able to do what we wanted, when we wanted. To have lots of money to go places and do things, when we wanted, however we wanted. Now that we are " grown up", we look back and say...gee wish we could go back to that time, when things were more simple, when we could do basically what we wanted...when we finished with our school obligations, our extra curricular activities and hanging out with friends on a weekend. In my case it was tinkering with electronics and radio that eventually lead me down a career path. Now that I'm older and with a family of my own, I see the many things in life that lay ahead for my kids. It's been 28 years since I last walked out of NHS, and 26 years since my dad went home to be with the Lord. If there is ever a sound piece of advice t hand down to your kids and grand kids, it is this.... Don't hurry up your younger days. Enjoy them all for every second that they are worth. Once the time has past, you'll never be able to retrieve it. Honor and love your parents for one day they will no longer be here. Make God a priority... Put Him in your life, cause in later years of this life, all you'll have are memories of great days gone by, memories of great people who have passed on,God who is alive and helping you prep for a new life in Heaven once this life has past away. We have made it through the spring of our life.....enjoy the summer of your life and all its treasures. The fall of life is colorful too with many gifts to be added. Bundle up for the winter of life....it can be a slippy ending if you don't have God to guide you through eternity.

Enjoy your summer....there is still more to come!

Enjoying your writings James...keep them coming. For a fellow who is a diehard North Carolinian and an Elizabeth City native....being in NY seems like NC is a million miles away. When I read your post, I feel like I'm home again.

Unknown said...

You always manage to make me cry. Loved it.

Pastor James said...

Thank you Bob. You are very encouraging.
For me it was 42 years ago when I walked put of Northeastern, in it's 5th graduating class.

Pastor James said...

Thank you Janet.

Terressa McDougald said...

The simpler times of Junes gone by are ones I yearn for in our present June. Our past Junes brought homemade ice cream on the front porch with your neighbors, everyone taking their turn to crank on the handle. In my neighborhood we walked the dirt roads, barefooted and free of worry, excited with the thought of no school for a couple of months! Little did we know that those couple of months were the fastest of the whole year! Thanks for stirring those June memories for me. Warms my heart on this muggy, hot June evening! Love you and your blogs. Keep up the good work.

Terressa McDougald said...

The simpler times of Junes gone by are ones I yearn for in our present June. Our past Junes brought homemade ice cream on the front porch with your neighbors, everyone taking their turn to crank on the handle. In my neighborhood we walked the dirt roads, barefooted and free of worry, excited with the thought of no school for a couple of months! Little did we know that those couple of months were the fastest of the whole year! Thanks for stirring those June memories for me. Warms my heart on this muggy, hot June evening! Love you and your blogs. Keep up the good work.

Pastor James said...

Thank you Teresa. We do live in a far different day don't we?
Blessings

Also, above I see I typed Janet, but I meant Janice ... most of been sleepy.

Diwakar said...

Hello Pastor JAMES. I am also a Pastor from Mumbai, India. I am glad to visit your blog post on My love for June. Very interesing events that reminds you the month of June. I am blessed and feel privivileged and honored to get connected with you as well as know you through your profile on the blogger and the blog post. I love to get connected with the people of God around the globe to be encouraged, strengthened and praying for one another. I have been in the Pastoral ministry for last 37 yrs in this great city of MUMBAI a city with a great contast where richest of rich and the poorest of poor live. We also encourage young and the adults from the west to come to Mumbai to work with us during their vacation time. We would love to have your young people come to Mumbai to work with us during their vacation time. I am sure they will have a life changing experience. My email id is: dhwankhede(at)gmail(dot)com and my name is Diwakar Wankhede. LOOKING FORWARD TO HEAR FROM YOU very soon. God's richest blessings on you, your family and friends. God willing I will be coming to the United States in the month of September and will be very glad to stop by your palce and share with you more about the ministry we have and the opportunity your young people can have.