Cliché Alert!!!

It’s early June and time for all good pastors to write columns about summertime (and the livin’ is easy, etc.), and please don’t let your giving take a vacation when you do. I normally eschew (and this is the first time I have EVER used that word) such cliches.

But not this year. This year I have two early June things to say.

1. Wear sunscreen.

2. What do you think about treating June and July as kind of a New Year’s reset? At New Year’s most of us tell ourselves that this coming year will be different. This year we are going to 1) take better care of ourselves through diet and/or exercise, or 2) get serious about career advancement, or 3) be intentional about primary relationships, or 4) etc.

Some years we might make formal resolutions. Some years we just think these things in our heads. Some years we tell a friend or spouse what we are hoping to do (thus giving ourselves an accountability partner). And many years we make progress! But by June some of our hopes and intentions have gone by the wayside.

So what if we thought about June as a New Year’s reboot? But in a relaxed, laid back way. So, here’s my question for June: What is my next step? What’s the one thing I could actually start doing over the summer, that I actually WANT to do, that will leave me better off, happier, healthier, etc. Thinking in terms of my physical, psychological, relational, and most of all, spiritual, health, what’s the right rhythm for me between time alone/time with others? Time working/time playing/time happily wasting? What next step do I want to take? And where is God in all this?

Now, do I want to write this next step down? Do I want to share it with anyone?

So here are mine:

A. I want to be more retired than I am now. That means keeping working hours per week to under 30 and putting all family opportunities and almost all friend/social opportunities higher on my priority list than all of my work obligations.

B. It’s time for me to put a significant amount of time (20 hrs./wk.) into coaching. Next step: sign up to become a BetterUp coach.

There, I have just given each of you permission to ask me over the summer how I am doing on my two summer goals. How about you? What do you WANT to (as opposed should) do for yourself this summer?

Oh, one more thing. I’m serious about the sunscreen.

Peace, Pr. Mark Walters