ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
July 30, 2022
I don’t want July to end! Yes, it still has one more day after today, but I’m not ready for July to end. Oh sure, I’d like the heat to dissipate just a little, but I’m still not ready to see July come to a close. Maybe I’m just odd this way (or maybe just odd in general), but there are times when a month has come and gone, and I am left wondering exactly what was accomplished. I think about the song, “Seasons of Love,” from the musical Rent. The song references “Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes,” the number of minutes in a year. If my math is correct, July will have had 44,640 minutes. As I am writing this, I am listening to the song, and it asks how we measure segments of our lives. Do we do so: “In daylights, in sunsets; In midnights, in cups of coffee; In inches, in miles; In laughter, in strife”? How do we measure a month of our lives? To borrow from the song, “How about love?” I know we still have another 24+ hours left in July, but if love is the tool of measurement, how are we doing? We’re talking about sharing, receiving, revealing and facilitating love. I sort of wonder if I’m holding onto July because I’m feeling as if love, specifically the work of love in and through me, has not come close to its potential. And yes, August will be here very soon — another opportunity. Though, as I write those words, the musical reminds me how the future is never guaranteed. I can’t keep putting things off or dwelling on past failures. I can only embrace this moment and the remaining moments of July. And when confronted with the question of measuring time, I can echo the words: “How about love?”
With every moment of life, I am provided an opportunity to make the world a little better. May the light of love, O God who has inspired us in the life of Jesus, be both a guide and revelation of purpose for this moment and every moment that follows. Amen.
