Well, Summer is dying. Okay, maybe that’s a bit morose. But it’s always how it feels to me. I know many people love the coming of autumn, and I understand those who are tired of the heat and humidity which, believe it or not, really will soon come to an end. But for me, the last week of August has always been more bitter than sweet. Partly because I would rather sweat than shiver, but partly because I have been trained most of my life to mourn when August ends.

“Back to School” ads always made me angry as a kid, and frankly don’t please me much even today. I associate the end of summer with the end of freedom, the beginning of anxiety, and a significant uptick in the number of meetings I have to go to. Every night the cicadas grow louder as they play their requiem to joy, and before we know it, all the plant life around us will begin to die. Bleh!

At the same time, I am very aware that I am actually (to me, surprisingly) in the minority in this regard. So normally I keep these feelings mostly to myself. And I respect the fact that others quicken at the thought of buying new trapper keepers and look forward to the air eventually becoming “crisp”. I respect them, because I have learned that it’s okay for other people to be wrong, sometimes.

In all seriousness, there are plenty of things going on around us this week that could make a person smile. I just thought it’d be a rare treat for you to read a Pastor’s Box written from the perspective of a curmudgeon. The Lord promised in Genesis that we would never see an end to “seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night”. Hidden within this statement is the spiritual truth that even angels in heaven go through fluctuating states of spiritual summer and winter. So although the state of a spiritually reborn individual is generally that of an optimist, they nevertheless have their better and their less good days, attitude-wise. So hopefully you’ll permit this sinner his moment wallowing in the dark tea-time of the soul, now and then.