I’m not sure how it happened so quickly, but my kids go back to school this week. Where did the summer go? This is not an unfamiliar question. The older I get, the faster time seems to go, and the older my children get, the more painfully apparent that becomes. 

As much as I love summer, the long days and looser schedules, I am exhausted and have spent much of the summer feeling divided between work, family, the desire for structure, and the inevitable disappointment in all the things I didn’t accomplish. I relate well with Elijah in today’s readings. I’m not praying for death (things aren’t that bad), but I do sometimes feel like I can’t keep going. There are so many needs, so many problems I can’t solve, not enough hours in the day. But what is the first thing Elijah needs? Sleep. What else? Food. This makes me giggle a little every time I read it. He needed a nap and a snack. Anyone who’s had a toddler knows this is the magic bullet. Even the great prophet, God’s great servant and messenger, needed to be reminded to slow down and rest. 

So often we create unrealistic expectations for ourselves (I won’t go into my long list of projects I was going to accomplish this summer that have yet to materialize). Even more frequently, we think that we have to take care of everyone else’s needs and forget our own. The Psalmist this morning reminds us: Look to him that you may be radiant with joy. I want to be radiant with joy! What follows the call to joy? The instruction to “stop murmuring.” I cannot find joy or peace in my vocation, in the daily grind of life, unless I take refuge in God in a spirit of gratitude. We all have so much to be grateful for, and yet we waste so much time complaining–inwardly and outwardly. 

Lastly, the reading in Elijah points us to the Gospel when we are reminded we have been given everything we need in the Eucharist. How easily we forget. Christ, in his sacrifice, in his perfect love, provides for us not just what we need here on earth, but what will bring us to eternity in Heaven. He gives us the bread that is himself for the life of the world.

So let’s take heart, dear friends. We may grow weary, but God invites us to come to him, to find our rest, to find our peace, (and to find a nap and a snack if we need it), but most importantly, to find our home in Heaven. In the meantime, we can look to him that we might be radiant with joy.