Summer's Almost Gone

Here it is, the first week of August almost gone. For some places the children will be heading back to school before too much longer. For us here in Virginia Beach our students won't return until the Tuesday after Labor Day. Why? Ask the politicians.

Several years back the tourist industry lobbied for a later start date for the local schools, as they lost their college age employees in August and their High School age folks not long after. They found they weren't able to staff their businesses with all of their low paid, seasonal employees gone before Labor Day. So the state legislature enacted what's come to be known as the "King's Dominion/Busch Gardens" law. It prohibits public schools from beginning the new school year before the first Monday of September.

However, over the years, the various local school districts around the Commonwealth discovered that they were having to extend the year into late June. So they started to petition the legislature and state school board to open their schools prior to Labor Day. And more and more the state has allowed them to do so. But the Virginia Beach School Board has yet to ask. SO... our children won't return in 2009 until September 8. The Virginia Beach High School football teams (we have 11 H.S. in the city) will have already played 2 games of their regular season before the student body has even returned. And the various choral programs who wish to have their students registered for things like Sr. Honors choir, etc. will find they have to learn their students voices very quickly as the cut off date for registration is not long after school starts.

You might be wondering, what does this have to do with our lives as Christ followers and church members/attenders. Just this- imagine if we were to approach our faith the way that Virginia Beach's School Board has approached the start of the school year. Regardless of how it might affect the various activities the schools have, or how it might mean extending the school year into late June, they continue to follow the "letter of the law." How many of us have found ourselves doing the same thing with our faith?

With the Law comes death, but with Christ comes eternal life. Jesus came not to abolish but to complete. The Law is still here, but in Christ we have freedom. we have forgiveness, we have completion. In Him there is no death, but life.

How's your week been? Looking forward to fall, or sorry to see summer go?
Have you been set free? Or are you locked into what the Law says?

Maranatha.