No More June Gloom - Hope When Things are Wrong

Hi Friends,

It's June! Which around here isn't summer at all. Here are some thoughts about June Gloom and living in hope and strength when life isn't what it should be . . .

 

 June Gloom?

            It was just wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Fog dripped from the trees and settled in puddles on the ground. I wrapped my scarf tighter around my neck and zipped my coat against the chill. 

Wrong.

And it wouldn’t burn off today. Maybe not even tomorrow.  

            So much for our warm summer camping trip.

            My daughter opened the door behind me and stepped outside. She pulled up the hood on her sweatshirt. “It’s so cold.”

            “Yes.”

            “It’s June.”

            “Yes.”

            “Summer.”

            “I know.

            “What are we going to do?”

I blinked. “What do you mean?”

She huffed. “I mean it’s just not right. We’re going to freeze.”

            “It is what it is. We’re going camping.”

She scowled, turned, and hurried back inside. 

            I sighed. 

She had a point. It wasn’t right. And it would be less right after we traveled up the mountain where it would be colder still. But I couldn’t control the weather. I couldn’t make the sun shine. Despite all my plans, all my hopes, all my careful preparations, I couldn’t even make the fog break for a single moment.     

            Sometimes life is like that. Sometimes things just don’t go as planned, or hoped, or expected. Sometimes it’s under fifty degrees in the middle of summer. Sometimes you’re a victim of June gloom.

            As I turned back to go inside and pack long sleeve shirts, wooly socks, and more scarves and sweatshirts, I thought about how life can go awry even when you’ve done everything you can to prepare. Sometimes, things just aren’t right and you have to pack to big blankets when the cold was the last thing you expected.

            Sometimes the sun doesn’t show up as planned.

            So then what do we do?

            For our family, we packed up and continued on with our camping plans. We bundled up, we traveled to the campground, we set up camp, and we made a big campfire. Scarves, coats, and all.

            That night, as we sat roasting marshmallows and sipping hot cocoa around a warm fire, with our coats zipped tight, I realized that a cold June day, and a colder June night, didn’t matter so much. We were together. We laughed. We joked. We read spooky stories and ate s’mores. 

            We lived. Even though everything wasn’t right. Even though life wasn’t all it was supposed to be.

            We found our place in the midst of a plan gone wrong.

            And I wondered, could we, could I, also find my place in a life that was not all it was supposed to be? Could I find peace, warmth, and joy when things just weren’t right in my world? Can I live life to the fullest even when it’s not what I planned, hoped, prayed? Even when damp fog blocks the light of the sun?

            Maybe I can. I will. 

In Ephesians 5:15-20 (NIV), Paul tells us to, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity… always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And in 2 Corinthians 9:8 (NIV), he says, “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” 

In all things. Everything. In the fog, in the chill, in the cold in summer. 

When life doesn’t go as hoped. When plans go awry. When the day looks nothing like you expected and it just isn’t right.

            Because even in June gloom, we can choose laughter. We can choose friendship. We can chose to draw near to the fire of Christ’s love, no matter what not-right things happen around us. We can chose gratefulness.

            June gloom happens. But it doesn’t mean we have to center our lives around the wrongness. It doesn’t mean we have to forego the wonder-filled things God has planned for us. 

            When we wake up to the drip-drip of a relationship that’s not all it should be, when we step into the chill of a lost job, when we walk beneath a gray sky and it seems the sun will never break through ... that’s the time gather together with those we love, draw close to the fire, and toast a marshmallow.

            June gloom doesn’t have to stop you. You just have to bundle up in God’s grace and drive up to mountains anyway. And maybe tomorrow the sun will come out and the fog will be only a memory.