Columns

By Ashlie Miller

“Have a great summer!” If you dig up an old school yearbook, someone at some point likely wrote that in the front or end pages of yours. Although it’s in the middle of the year, summer comes at a closure and seasonal “goodbye” for many people. We wish a “great summer” in a way that we do not proclaim any other season, except perhaps the Christmas holiday. While each season has its gift, does any season provide as much time for recreation, leisure, and renewal?

Swimming, running, and pickleball, hiking and camping in the great outdoors, attending games, outdoor concerts, movies in the park, grilling at the neighbor’s (Northern or Cali transplants, do not call this a barbecue, please), block parties, summer-themed festivals, and even the quieter hobbies of bird watching and gardening all bid us outside. Or maybe you escape the humidity and enjoy the air conditioning by catching up on puzzles, watching Christmas movies in July, completing the work-in-progress hobby or task, or reading.

Many also find a fire reignited, not just by sitting around a campfire and sharing stories and thoughts, but perhaps as students attending a camp or children at a Vacation Bible School. I remember the days of hot camp meetings as choirs joined together and preachers preached under a large tent over a sawdust-laden ground. 

Attendees of VBS, youth camps, and seasonal church meetings often leave with a sense of renewal, rededication, or recommitment to what (or Who) matters most. 

Even work can seem less like the exhausting tedium of toil in this season for some (with apologies to landscapers and road-workers). Extended hours of daylight can provide more opportunities for recreation after hours. 

The season can be a life-giving recharge before schedules for many resume or take an upswing in September. Recreation lives up to the name of RE-creating life and vibrancy within us.

Summer often takes us back to the memory of Eden – the garden of the dawn of the ages that held such promise, but was spoiled by mankind’s will, desire, and lack of contentment, trust, and obedience. The place of walking in intimate communion with God. 

We look to re-create such things through moments of leisure. Maybe if we spend enough time appreciating nature, we will learn something about ourselves or something greater beyond ourselves, if such things exist. Perhaps if we make time to connect with our neighbors, friends, or community, a hole of deep communion will be filled. If we are lucky, maybe some focused solitude on a worthwhile project will make work feel purposeful, beautiful, and enjoyable for once. But summer will end, and there may still be desires unsatisfied. C.S. Lewis famously wrote, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

Let’s not pretend that we can recreate Eden or heaven on earth through our recreation this summer, but if such pleasures and pauses bring a greater awareness of creation, our Creator, and a need to return to such things, we truly can “have a great summer!”

By Ashlie Miller

Recently, our 18-year-old son graduated from high school. While he was but a newborn, an event nearby rocked the community – what became known as the “Sun Drop Murders” (whose victims were Donna Barnhardt and Darrell Noles). Our family would often pass by the area on the way to my in-laws, the kids’ grandparents.

At our son’s graduation, I reminisced on the passage of time – a time that went by too quickly. I recall the early years of struggling with language arts in particular, and then seeing him later thrive and enjoy those subjects. Likewise, it seemed like yesterday that he was struggling to breathe when many colds would affect his little body and turn into infections. The sweet times when I was his world, and he was mine, transformed into launching into independence. Eighteen years flew by too quickly. Some days were long, but the years really were short, like the saying goes.

But 18 years can also drag on senselessly, sometimes seemingly without hope. While we cannot speak on behalf of the victims’ families, most of us know some measure of prolonged waiting, though many of us may not relate to a sense of delayed justice. In this case, and in my comparison, those years of waiting really have been a lifetime.

Perhaps you resonate with excruciating years of waiting for something or someone. We resonate with the Psalmist who said, “How long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13:1). Tragedy, estrangement, betrayal, despair, and scarcity can feel more tangible than the resolution our soul longs for.

Though these murders may have been unsolved, they were never fully closed. The Concord investigators pursued justice, and the case was never forgotten, either by the families or law enforcement, thankfully.

In our own lives, we can also trust that God sees all wrongs that need to be made right, keeps record of our tears, and never forgets. But when we cannot see Him working, or things are not resolved in our way and understanding, we might doubt Him or our faith. Yet, He is still working. The recent arrest can remind us that secrets have an expiration date. Yes, sometimes humans can uncover them. But our Sovereign God sees when things happen and will, in His way and time, either now or in eternity, execute perfect justice.

Do you feel unsettled when stories seem unfinished? For years, I remember seeing the banner outside the Sun Drop Bottling Company with requests for information on the horrendous acts against the sanctity of two lives. Eventually, though there was no resolution or answers, the banner eventually came down. It still felt unsettling when I would drive down Old Concord-Salisbury Road. We all still longed for answers, none more so than their families. Many people chimed in on social media when the case broke in May. So many exclamations of justice served and resolution, because deep down, each of us knows that evil should not have the last word. Is that evidence that we were created by a just Judge?

Stories like these give us cause to celebrate our local law enforcement. But it does not have to end there. We can reflect on God’s sovereignty, that He never forgets, that true justice (His justice) will prevail, and our longing for it is evidence of His design in us (whether we believe in Him or not).