“The Lord your God is giving you rest.” Joshua 1:13

   Summer Craze is Here! We’re free from school assignments and having to be in the same building 5 days a week! Can you taste the freedom?!

   We’ve got a bunch of youth group activities this summer too and with the amount of fun activities we could do this summer, do you also feel a sense of busyness? But we feel like we need to go do all this fun stuff, right?! Otherwise known as FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). If we don’t do all the fun stuff that our friends are talking about then we’ll come back to school in the fall and have nothing to add to the conversation, right?! I used to feel that way. Sometimes I still do; a lot of my friends are traveling the world and I spend the majority of my time in Arthur. This isn’t a bad thing; I’m just tempted to feel like I’m missing out on the fun they’re having!

One of the devotions I get by email arrived today asking this question: “Rather than the fear of missing out on what everyone else is doing, what if we fear missing the presence of God in our midst? Fear missing His still small voice rather than missing out on a social engagement? What special gift from God might you miss by choosing to stay busy than rest?” Woof, that had me checking my heart!

   Joshua reminds us that God gifts us rest. A time to not be constantly worrying about what I’m wearing and doing. A time that I can choose where I will meet God today. While I don’t wish fear in us, I do pray that we don’t fear missing out on the stuff this world has to offer us. I do pray that we have a FOMIWJ (Fear Of Missing Intimacy With Jesus) this summer. Intimacy will look different for each of us. I crave intimacy with Jesus beside the water or beside one of my dog friends or when I babysit kiddos this summer.

  Where are you going to be craving intimate time with Jesus this summer? We have a bunch of opportunities with our youth group events, but maybe that’s not how you best meet God and that’s okay!

  My challenge for us is to snap a picture every time we meet God this summer, and then send it to me. At the end of the summer, I’ll put them into a collage for us to sit back and remember everywhere God showed up for us this summer.  

  Ready? Go!