Sun. Aug. 5, 2012 (Connie Siedler)

Connie Siedler (graduate student at Regent College and former resident of The Menno Simons Centre) continued her series on the seasons of life. Earlier talks looked at “winter” and “summer”, following the idea expressed in Ecclesiastes 3, “For everything there is a season”, and this talk focused on “summer”. We are drawn to summer’s long days, summer’s warmth, holidays, fresh fruits and vegetables. In our emotional lives we also experience our “seasons”, including “summers” of light/ happiness, joy, and refreshment. Part of this is hopefully engendered by our belonging to the Kingdom of God, a kingdom we only need to receive and enter (though once there, plenty of opportunities for work will arise, just as in summer). People who garden often enjoy sharing produce with others; the Kingdom asks that we give to others from our abundance (“freely you have received, freely give”). Summers also come with dangers--drought, floods--and the “summers” of our lives can also experience danger. When things are going well, we tend to think less often of God, or consumerism robs from that which we ought to be sharing with others. As we go through life, we should learn to recognize and experience each of our life’s “seasons”, seeing how each transforms us within the Kingdom. [JEK]

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