The Summer of Our Discontent

Lust isn’t always about bodies. Lust is about our eyes — where we set our gaze. We covet what we allow ourselves to linger on, especially in regards to others’ possessions and experiences. 

Any scroll through social media can bring up those desires: good books on a soft carpet in front of a warm fire. Wide open roads in a spacious vehicle and trips to beautiful vistas. Kids frolicking in the snow. Feet in the ocean. 

Summer is my least favorite season, and it is always Summer here. Aside from the oppressive heat, Summer stretches on in an unchanging monotony of yellow and green and brown. No real temperature fluctuations. Little to no wind. Plenty of bugs with no winter to kill them. Not much scope for the imagination nor hint of change on the horizon. 

The antidote for lust is to flee. Close our eyes. Turn away. Set our gaze on something else, something more likely to remind us of how much we have already been given. 

Employing the “snooze” on friends’ feeds is a powerful way of turning from the temptation of a season other than the one we are in. God knows what we need. He knows I need year after year of Summer to love the things of this world less, and Him more.

Sometimes I look at the people around me and remember how unfair life is. Why did I grow up in a country with every opportunity, comparatively endless resources, and comfort after comfort? Why am I able to give my children so many educational advantages and little joys? Why do I live such an easy life next to those who undertake backbreaking labor and others who don’t have money for their next meal? Why this privilege? How can I use it for good? 

Eyes on the prize. On the Author and Perfecter of our faith, whose love is incomparable and trustworthy. On the race set before me. On things above. With no regrets. This season, however long it may be, for His glory and my good.

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” 

- 1 John‬ ‭2:15-17‬ ‭NIV -