I know it’s only August (and those of us who live in hot, humid Florida can’t wait for it to pass), but really? Do we have to have Halloween candy and fall-winter decor and clothing etc. in stores already?
Yes, there are tropical storms. We’ve already had one and another one looms. Yes, school, in Florida at least, starts on Monday. Our teachers, sweating bullets, have faced six days of orientation already, prepared their classrooms, unpacked supplies, decorated bulletin boards and doors, and carried materials they’ve purchased (usually with their own money) so that all will be ready on Monday. New colleagues have been briefed, veterans have tried to prepare, and security measures (always, unfortunately, more strict than last year) have been drilled into their psyches. One wonders why children are behind bars rather than their potential threateners, but that’s the new reality. Our campuses look like Fort Knox with gates, perimeter fences, and no propped open doors.
This fall seems more chaotic than most. Politically, campaign years are always disruptive, with nastiness, inuendo, falsehoods, and antagonism. This one is especially troubling, no matter which side we’re on. How, I wonder, can we teach our children to be welcoming of ideas, or even civil to each other, when our newscast (or opinion-casts) spew language our kindergarteners must learn to reject? Remember that little book we used to read? “Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten?” Perhaps our adult population needs a reread of that little book about caring for others and taking personal responsibility for our actions.
I’m hearing stories about deep financial concerns for parents who struggle to put nutritious food on the table and now have to buy expensive school supplies. . I hope teasing does happen when last year’s bookbag must be used again. I know of kids not attending friends’ birthday parties because of the added expense. I know many kids did not attend camp this summer, or participate in activities with entrance fees. I know hard decisions cause frustration in many homes, and parents rejoice that free breakfast and reduced or free lunch begins again in a few days and school weekend bags begin again. And I know schools will welcome hundreds of children who do not speak our language, who are living unsettled lives, and who live in fear and distrust.
Yes, it’s only August.
Approaching holidays remind us that while we used to, in an agrarian society, look forward to harvest, this year harvesting may bring a unique longing. Yet, we can look at what St. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church in the first century, and take heart. We can teach our children the hard lessons many of us learned in similar times when we were growing up. I remember ration books and my siblings and I got one pair of good shoes and one pair for everything else for a year. Yes, our toes hurt when our feet grew, and yes, there was cardboard inside when soles wore through. But here’s the optimism Paul sowed, and I repeat it today. Philosophically, psychologically, sociologically, it makes common sense in tough, chaotic times. So yes, it’s only August, but it brings it all into perspective, somehow:
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store and seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
Yes, it’s only August, but God’s word encourages us for the days of our lives now and in the future if we believe His promises. He tells us that if our faith is as tiny as a mustard seed, it will blossom into great things in harvests to come. 
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