Ever since I was fifteen years old, I would get asked the same question as summer neared (as I imagine most other people do as well); "what are you doing this summer?" Ten years later, that question has changed slightly to "are you working this summer?" If you asked me the first one, I'd talk non-stop like a soldier with the trigger pulled on .50 caliber machine gun. But if you asked me the latter, I'd look at you like you were speaking nonsense and then laugh.
After answering the the "work" question it is usually followed up with "taking any summer classes?" or my personal favorite "but you could make bank!" I have never worked a full summer in my life. The most was last year for a co-op as part of my college program, but I only worked nine and a half out of fourteen. I have never taken a class in the summer and I will go through hell and back to avoid doing so. Not literally, just a figure of speech for all you literalists out there.
Throughout my teenage years, I watched as my friends, who had jobs, were getting cell phones, owning laptops, and driving cars. Material things my generation longed for during those hormonal, quirky, trying-to-find-yourself years. I watched as some of them advanced in school and got out of pointless or annoying classes by taking them in the summer because they were simpler and shorter than during the regular school year. I could've had all that too. All I had to do was sign up or get a job. The cold hard truth is that I value other things way more than I do money or blitzing through school. I value taking my bike out for a run in the ever beautiful Cleveland Metro Parks on a sunny day, lying on my trampoline for long periods of time soaking in the sun or catching a little extra shut-eye, playing frisbee, basketball, volleyball, and disc golf whenever, going to the beach, fishing on the lake or in the river, being able to go on a spontaneous road trip, a week long vacation to visit family and friends, junior high camp, vision week, mountaintop, Indians baseball, late nights, sleeping in, and being free.
Sure many of those things could be done in the evenings and on the weekends, but being cooped up in a factory, office, lab, etc during the summer just ain't my cup of tea. If you came up to me and said that if I worked an insanely demanding job for five days a week from May to September that you'd pay me $1 million. I would say thanks, but no thanks. To give up an entire summer for something so temporary, I would go insane.
Now comes the next group of people that would say I'm not thinking rationally. That I'm not going to be able to enjoy the summer without the dough. That the evil empire known as college tuition will hound me until I die. My response. I'm not worried. The Lord will provide. Before I entered college, I didn't really need a car or phone and those summers turned out to be amazing. Heck I even wrote a three page, single spaced poem about the summer of 2007. I gave a lot of time in those summers from then until now to the Lord (including and entire year). I worked only during the school year at CSU. I'm also in the process of completing my final co-op job. So where am I at without working an entire summer? My first two years of college are paid off, I have nearly enough saved to pay off the rest, I have a good car paid in full, and haven't had to worry about money in years.
I'm not saying all of this to brag or to make anyone feel bad, but rather I want to show you how supplying the Lord truly is. I didn't have my license or a cell phone until I was 20. I didn't own a car until last October. I also didn't need them until I actually acquired them. The Lord is all knowing and He gave me those things when I truly needed them. Some wise brothers and sisters have told me in high school and when I entered college that I shouldn't be in a rush to get through them or to get a job just to get a job. They said you'll have the whole rest of your life to work. If you go by the ideal standard (start out of college at 25 and retire at 65), that's forty years! More realistically, in today's world, it's longer than that. Don't get me wrong, we need to work to live, to support a family, to somewhat enjoy life. There are also many reasons why working is good for you. But right now, while I'm single, still in college, and can take advantage of free summers, I'm going to do so. I've made decisions that made me miss certain things, events, people that to this day I regret. I want to avoid repeating those errors by living in the moment, taking one thing at a time, living for adventure, keeping those I know and love close, enjoying the laid-back part of life while I still can, and using some of that freedom for the coming of the Kingdom of Christ.
