Summertime

But You, O God, are my king from of old;

You bring salvation upon the earth.

It was You who set all the boundaries of the earth;

You made both summer and winter.

Psalm 74:12, 17

As I am sitting here this morning in front of my computer, in my wonderful little house with its air-conditioning on, the temperature outside is in the low 90’s, headed to a high of 102° today, with a heat index of 110° - the same as yesterday.  I lived the first 18 years of my life in Phoenix, Arizona, so I have seen this temperature [and much higher] many times.  I used to have a t-shirt proclaiming I Survived 122°! when the mercury hit that mark in the greater Phoenix area.  The proverbial “frying eggs on the sidewalk” was a foregone conclusion!

The men and women in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait see temperatures of 122° on a daily basis.  In fact, it was a “cool” day in Iraq yesterday – it only reached 115° at one of the military bases.  They don’t get to don a bathing suit or a pair of shorts and a tank top either. They wear full military camouflage – long sleeves and all.

The homeless are another group who, for the most part, don’t have an air-conditioned room to pop into.  They are constantly looking for shade, and are also dressed in long sleeves in order to protect themselves from the sun.  Our city has opened three cooling shelters for this weekend; they do so whenever the heat index rises above 95°.  Hopefully most of those living outdoors will be able to find their way to one of these cool havens.  This heat wave covers much of the Midwest through the Eastern United States, putting many homeless people at risk.

Please pray today for the military men and women serving in the hot zones overseas, and especially for the homeless who are trying to survive here in our own hometowns and across North America.  The summer is beautiful, but the heat can be deadly.