I love you, O LORD, my strength...

  - Psalm 18.1

The world's strength is a deception/ to whoever dwells therein;/ there is no strength/ save great love for the Son of Mary.

  - Oengus mac Oenbogann, Feilire Oengusso (Irish, 9th century)

Summer saps my strength. I could go from late winter to mid-fall every year and be just as happy - no, happier.

The hot weather takes it out of me. It's in the summer that I'm most aware of my (increasing) physical limitations. I rest more often cutting the lawn. I puff a little more trudging up the stairs. Even driving in a hot car, whew! it just beats me down.

All this is good, I keep telling myself, because it serves to remind me to seek the Lord for strength each day. Without Him we can do nothing. We have no strength for anything at all save that which Jesus speaks our way each day. He is all our strength, and in loving Him, we find more strength to serve Him beyond the frailities and limitations of our flesh.

There is strength in loving Jesus. If we love Him we will have power to deny the flesh its incessant whining after this, that, or the other. If we love Him we will have strength to focus our attention on unseen things, deep mysteries of revelation, and the hope of glory which is ours in Christ. Loving Jesus we will endeavor more than what is reasonable for our puny forms and finite circumstances. Loving Jesus we tap a strength within that is able to do exceeding abundantly more than we've ever dare to ask or think.

You can't out-dare, out-ask, or out-think the Lord. His strength is ready to empower any who truly love Him and are determined to live beyond their experience, beyond their perceived limitations, beyond their highest hopes and dreams into new adventures of a strength that comes from beyond this world.

So bring on the summer! I can handle it in the strength of Jesus! No more whining! No more counting the days 'till fall!

Well, maybe I'll still count the days 'till fall.

But wear-me-out summer is a blessing in that it causes me to seek the strength of Jesus by learning to love and trust Him more. If it takes the heat of summer once a year to advance my love for Jesus, then I guess I can see the good in this oppressive season after all.

T. M. Moore, Principal

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