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Don’t Let Summer be the Time When Faith Goes Adrift.

Around the earth, there exists what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration refers to as a “belt.” At a latitude of 5 degrees above and below the equator, there exists a weather pattern termed Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone. Sailors for centuries have used the more descriptive term, the Doldrums. I am no meteorologist and would never claim to be one, but my understanding is that this is a zone where northern and southern hemispheric trade winds converge in such a way to create windless, calm seas along the equator. The doldrums, a word we don’t hear often in modern usage, refers to a state of being listless, bored, apathetic. In other words, dull. As if there is no wind at your back and life is just drifting you along. Even if we haven’t been to the equator, we’ve all been in the proverbial doldrums at one time, or another.

Summer in local churches can be a season of doldrums if we let it. Beyond vacation Bible school weeks in some churches, it may seem a listless time. Families are often traveling, pastors may be taking time away from the pulpit occasionally and there aren’t holidays to bracket the schedule. All that is to say, let summer be a time or renewal and hope in your life of faith and relationship with Jesus Christ, rather than a time of aimless drifting. Work and live in the hope of Christ, knowing that no time in that life should be so dull we lose focus and despair, or grow bored and drift off.

Oddly enough, a quick search of the googles finds dozens of Bible passages on what to do when we’re overwhelmed and feeling helpless. It’s a little more difficult to find guidance on being underwhelmed and helplessly drifting. In a podcast some years back, pastor John Piper offered some suggestions. One is to take up our strength in God, who can (and will) change our condition. It may take time, but every relationship that is enduring takes time. Second, ask God to offer the wind at your back in the direction He wants you to go. This takes conversation with Him, prayer with Him, going back to the Bible through a devotional program or a Christian friend/teacher/mentor who can guide you toward Scripture. Then, of course, you have to read and pray for yourself. The wind of God may finally move you, but you’ve got to be willing to follow it’s leading. Finally, Piper suggests remembering who you are and your purpose in God’s Kingdom. It’s easy to feel a sense of momentum and encouragement during Christmas and Easter time, because there is excitement and a rallying of the faithful in Christ. Your purpose for loving and serving the Lord extends through the whole calendar, even through the doldrum months of summer. John Piper quotes 1 Peter 2:9:

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

In other words, you are Christ followers, Christian seekers, builders of God’s Kingdom 365 days a year (yes, even in leap years) and are worth far more than staying stuck in the doldrums. Every life of faith in Christ has it’s moments of peaceful drifting, when there aren’t revelatory fireworks and bursts of insight. Despite this, you are made for the whole life of Christianity, the life that sees you seeking Christ all year through Bible time, prayer, fellowship with other Christians and church services (even when the air conditioning is wonky). There are no doldrums that can defeat Christ’s people.

(credit where credit is more than due: John Piper–https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/strategies-for-when-life-seems-aimless and NOAA–https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/doldrums.html )