Downtime is uptime if it's God's time.

It's been a long time now since we marked the celebration of Easter on the church's calendar. It's an even longer time until the seasons of Advent and Christmas return. It seems that the hot, humid days of summer are the time of year we set aside not only to get a break from school or take a vacation from our job, but also as a time when we take a little "time off" from God.

The fluidity of summertime schedules means that more families are out of town, and Sunday morning attendance significantly withers. By now the Sunday school is closed and even vacation Bible school may be over. It's a bad time of year to schedule important meetings or to make any great future-shaping decisions. Everyone, it seems, is ready for a break, a change, a chance for a l…