Parson to Person

Summer’s here, time for beer…not for me so much, but you get the idea. We mammals need to keep our core temperatures cool, and a really good way to do that in the good old summertime is by consuming cold beverages of various kinds. Just recently, I became acquainted with something new (to me, at least) and it immediately perked up my theological ears. It is called a summer shandy.

Now, a shandy, according to the dictionary, is a mixture of a fermented beverage (usually beer) with a non-fermented beverage (usually some kind of fruit juice, and often lemonade). This ‘lightens the load’ a bit, allowing you to drink enough to cool you off without compromising your ability to do other stuff you need to do. Technically, then, a wine cooler, or a spritzer, or even the various forms of ‘hard’ lemonade and cider, all would be shandies. I am not encouraging you in unhealthy behaviors, really…but I do think that this image is the perfect image for our summer spiritual life and practice.

What I mean has several sides to it…let’s start with summer worship attendance. I think summer is the perfect time to ‘mix it up’, to try more, or less, church time, or other church time, or even visiting other faith groups, just for the change of pace, or for the insights we usually gain from one another. I am confident in our life together here at Trinity and can send you out to ‘mix it up’ without much fear of you getting lost along the way. So please, ‘shandy-ize’ your summer worship life, without guilt or fear…like a cold beverage, your spiritual life is supposed to refresh you, right?

Another side of this might be more personal…you would have to decide if your current spiritual practice was more like a fermented drink, bubbly and growing, or more like a still drink, kinda flat. Summer is the perfect time to mix in the opposite of what you already are doing, spicing thing up if you are coasting, or watering things down a bit if you are too hoppy. Again, these are summertime things, seasonal things; you don’t have to change something for the rest of eternity! But self-chosen change is the only kind of change that really works at the core level, and the only kind that helps us modify and improve in the long run.

I really, really want you to know this about me…I am not a scorekeeper kind of pastor. Your life, your summer, your time, all are yours, to use or waste or overextend, yours and yours alone. That said, I love it when you come to church, I am honored that you are sharing your life and time with us here at Trinity. But I am not dishonored when you don’t… I am encouraging you to seek the variety and refreshment that summer uniquely offers, whatever shape that takes for you!

Have a blessed summer, and have a shandy or two, actual or spiritual. Refreshment awaits!