by Catey Yuen, RTF staff writer

School is coming to a close. You may be looking forward to a summer break to relax, going to summer camp or on a missions trip, or just hanging out.

I always feel most involved with God during the summer. There are fewer distractions – fewer deadlines to meet, less work to do.

Paul likens our Christian life like a runner’s training. We can’t always be racing. We have to have breaks between runs, times to cool down. We also need times to prepare, to get fit, to stretch and warm up. That helps us get ready when the big race comes and we’re running.

I consider summer break our training period. I use it to catch up on spiritual and material things.

This summer, I’ll be doing a lot of preparation and cooling down from the last school year. I’ll be taking courses over the summer to get ready for a few things I’m picking up this next school year. I’ll be using that time to catch up on my apologetics reading. I’ll be working on cementing doctrine into my mind and studying up on topics that will make an influence in the coming year.

I wasn’t especially thrilled about not having a full summer break when I first saw how necessary it would be. After all, this was a tough school year. There were far too many nights where I didn’t go to sleep until morning just to try to get assignments done. But God has really impressed upon me this verse in recent times:

2 Timothy 3:16-17: Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God has a life prepared for all of us, and to be able to best carry out His plan, we need to be complete. That means we don’t get to slack off three months of the year, but that God wants to use us all the time, helping us grow in him. This verse also says that the word of God is able to get us ready to live that life after God’s will.

I’m convinced the reason God gives us rests in our Christian life is to prepare us for the next season in our lives. So let’s use this summer break to prepare for the life ahead of us. Make it meaningful. Get in God’s word and pray daily. Use this time to do things to make a difference.

Make this summer one to remember.