A Love Letter to Summer
Every summer feels like an invite into a world of fresh opportunities.
The longer days make me want to stay out a little later, to buy some fresh flowers, to take the long way home with the windows down, sit outside with my coffee in the morning and go for long walks in the afternoon. I love doing all of these things… and I do them every summer. But this summer feels extra special – because God has sent me a new kind of invitation this year.
An invitation to believe bigger and believe for more. An invitation to finally step fully into the life I’ve been praying about for years.
Am I excited? More than you could even imagine.
Am I afraid? Definitely yes.
Jack and I were recently in the Cayman Islands on a family vacation. On our last day there, in my desperate search for an iced coffee, I stumbled upon a place called Tillies.
There was a little coffee bar tucked to the side that immediately made me want to pull out my notebook and write. The hotel looked like something from an old movie. Palm trees swayed in the background. Salt and the smell of sunscreen lingered in the air. Everyone seemed relaxed in a way that only happens when people have nowhere else they need to be. The barista, named Dennis, ended up giving me my iced coffee for free. Mission iced coffee accomplished.
I remember standing there thinking, How did I not find this place until the very last day?
That’s what travel always does to me.
It reminds me that there are entire worlds I've never seen before.
Entire lives I've never imagined before.
Entire possibilities waiting beyond the horizon of what I already know.
The thrill of hopping on a plane and traveling has nothing to do with the destination itself.
It's the way it expands my vision for life.
You can spend a Tuesday afternoon drinking an iced coffee by the beach and suddenly you remember that your life can look totally different than it does right now. How dreamy.
And the best part is, that for a moment, the walls you've built around what's possible begin to fall away.
I think that's why I wanted to write this today… on a beautiful summer day. Because that’s what God has been reminding me of this summer — that more is always possible with Him.
I don’t believe everyone needs to move somewhere tropical or spend their days drinking a cold brew by the ocean.
But I do believe that everyone needs to keep possibility in their hearts. And more than anything, I want you to remember that beautiful things are possible for your life.
I know we hear messages like this all the time.
We're constantly told to dream bigger, believe harder, work more, become more and totally change our lives.
But that's not really what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about hope. Real hope…
The kind of hope that knows that your current circumstances don't get the final say.
The kind of hope that turns into a relentless faith that God is still writing your story, even when you can't see what He's doing.
When I first came to Jesus, one of the first verses I memorized was Jeremiah 29:11.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
I kept those words so close to my heart and my life didn’t look anything close to hopeful at the time.
I desperately needed to believe that God was writing a story bigger than the chapter I was living in.
And He was.
The older I get, the more I realize that redemption doesn’t happen overnight.
There is more to the story than that.
It's finding yourself laughing again after a season of grief.
It's waking up one morning and realizing the thing that used to break your heart no longer has the same power over you.
It's noticing that you've finally become the person you spent years praying to be without even realizing it.
Sometimes I think about the girl I used to be.
We all have a past version of us that was lost, hurting, stuck, wondering if we would ever feel happiness again.
The girl I used to be had no idea what God was doing behind the scenes.
And if I could sit across from her today, I would tell her that someday she will be sitting in the sunshine, married to the love of her life, drinking coffee by the ocean, and realizing that God has a way of writing stories we could never write ourselves.
Could you imagine if you started reading a book and two pages later it was already introducing a happy ending?
Wouldn’t that be a boring read?
The journey makes for a much better story.
Life is never going to be perfect. There will always be hardships and hard seasons but I guess what I’m trying to say is God is always working. The entire time.
Even in our waiting and in our heartbreak, He is writing stories (good ones…not ones that fast forward to the end).
So as I formally accept my invitation from God to enjoy life and believe for more this summer… to have real hope and faith like never before, I’ve come to realize that's what dreaming really is.
It's simply staying open to the possibility that God may have something far more beautiful planned than anything you can currently imagine.
Summer has always reminded me of the magical feeling of possibility.
There is something about the warmth in the air, the golden hour in the evenings, the smell of sunscreen, fresh fruit, birds chirping, and saltwater that makes life feel full of possibility again.
It feels like anything could happen.
Like adventure is waiting around the corner and your story isn't finished yet.
Maybe that's what I want you to remember if you're reading this from a place that feels similar to where old me used to be.
But I promise you that you’re not stuck.
This season is not your forever.
If He can bring beauty from ashes, joy from heartbreak, and purpose from pain, then who knows what He might do with the chapters ahead.
So, I formally extend God’s invitation for me to you this summer.
Dream a little bigger and actually believe in it.
Take a nice long walk.
Sit in the sunshine more often.
Treat yourself to your favorite iced coffee.
Go on the trip.
Start the thing.
Trust God again.
Hope is a beautiful way to begin an incredible story.
Let your hope be the beginning of your story this summer.
Let it be the start of your love letter to summer.
I hope you’ll accept my invitation.
Happy Summer.
<3
