Independence Day has now come and gone and we are headed into what the old folks used to call “Dog Days”. According to www.almanac.com…
The term “Dog Days” traditionally refers to a period of particularly hot and humid weather occurring during the summer months of July and August in the Northern Hemisphere.
In ancient Greece and Rome, the Dog Days were believed to be a time of drought, bad luck, and unrest, when dogs and men alike would be driven mad by the extreme heat! Today, the phrase doesn’t conjure up such bad imagery. Instead, the Dog Days are associated purely with the time of summer’s peak temperatures and humidity.
This period of sweltering weather coincides with the year’s heliacal (meaning “at sunrise”) rising of Sirius, the Dog Star. Sirius is part of the constellation Canis Majoris—the “Greater Dog”—which is where Sirius gets its canine nickname, as well as its official name, Alpha Canis Majoris. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky, not including our own Sun.
As I have previously noted, growing up on a rural Georgia farm, we just thought this time of the year was called “Dog Days” because it was so hot that most of the local dogs literally laid up under the porch refusing to come out from the shade for most any purpose other then to eat and drink.
Either way, the dog days of summer have clearly arrived here in east Tennessee. As I write this, the forecast for the next five days is well into the high 90’s, with the humidity pushing the heat index well above 100!
In light of this, where will “yours truly” be? You guessed it – laid out under the porch in the shade refusing to come out for any other reason other than food and drink! Not really.
But the high temperatures have forced me to adapt. So what I have decided to do is to rearrange my daily schedule in order that the very first thing I do is to go take my daily walk. After all, virtually every other activity I undertake, apart from yard work and property upkeep, is done indoors – at least it is this time of year.
I have found that if I get up, get going, get done, and get back home, I can beat much of the heat and humidity. Sure, I still face the heat throughout the day. Only, I do so a little less severely. And yet, even while walking early these days, I find that I still quickly “face the heat”.
As I did so earlier this morning, I thought about the fact that many a time in my life, I have resisted sweating at all cost. How many times have I bathed, powdered, and applied antiperspirant before dressing and going forth to face the day, only to them find myself in some circumstance wherein I found myself “feeling the heat”?
In so many of these circumstances, how often did I wipe my brow, grab my shirt just below the collar and fan it back and forth furiously, or fan myself feverishly with anything handy?! All in a vain attempt to fend off the inevitable flush of sweat that was forthcoming!
Nowadays, however, I have adopted a different approach. These days, I have finally decided to embrace the sweat! That is to say, I have accepted the fact that, in an approximately 4.5 mile walk, I am going to break out in a sweat. Therefore, the sooner it happens, the better. The quicker I get “heated”, all my pores open up, and my body is flooded with sweat, the better off I am going to be!
After all, is that not what nature intended? My body only sweats in order to cool itself off. If I fight this, I fight nature. Conversely, if I embrace this, then I embrace nature. The same old folks who knew about “Dog Days” also knew about sweat.
For this reason, they would go out into the fields, even on the hottest of days, adorned in long sleeve shirts. Why? Because they knew that as quick as they got hot and sweated, their shirts would be drenched and they would be soaked. Then, whenever a breeze blew, they would cool off quicker!
Now, which approach is more prudent in the long run? To fight perspiration at all cost or simply to embrace the sweat and move forward?! After a lifetime of choosing the former, I’ve now decided to choose the latter. And I’m finding it not only preferential, but also highly beneficial!
As those of you who are my regular readers might expect, my continued reflections on this have led me to a spiritual application. Allow me to expound. You see, many a time within the pages of Holy Scripture, we find individuals who came up against seemingly insurmountable odds, and had the choice either to resist the complications of their circumstances in order not to find themselves made uncomfortable, or else to “man up” and embrace their difficulties.
Names like Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Elijah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, Peter, and Paul all come to mind. Let alone the name of Jesus Christ! In each and every one of these situations, the individuals involved faced the heat, embraced the sweat, and eventually finished the course.
Little wonder that the Apostle James writes in his New Testament letter that we should…
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, a whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Given this, I, for one, have learned to consider the heat of this world as a reason to consider it all pure joy!
And so, my friend, what are you up against? Are you facing the proverbial heat? Are things getting a little hot for you right now?
Is the temperature unbearable in some given relationship, circumstance, and/or context? Then why not just “man up” and embrace the sweat?!
Trust me, addressing the pressing issue (or issues) at hand will invariably prove far more beneficial than avoiding or postponing the inevitable. What is more, you may well discover that addressing the issue (or issues) may well prove that it was nowhere near as bad in the end as you might have anticipated or feared!
These days, irrespective of the heat, I find that the latter portion of my daily walk is actually quite refreshing. So much so that I consider it the reward for my earlier acquiescence to the impending rise in temperature. In other words, at the end of the trail, I sure am thankful that I did not spend the majority of my journey simply seeking to avoid discomfort.
And in the end, this helps me to count it all, no matter how hot it may have been in the moment, as pure joy!
SOURCE:
https://www.almanac.com/content/what-are-dog-days-summer.
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/niv/james/1.htm.
The term “Dog Days” traditionally refers to a period of particularly hot and humid weather occurring during the summer months of July and August in the Northern Hemisphere.
In ancient Greece and Rome, the Dog Days were believed to be a time of drought, bad luck, and unrest, when dogs and men alike would be driven mad by the extreme heat! Today, the phrase doesn’t conjure up such bad imagery. Instead, the Dog Days are associated purely with the time of summer’s peak temperatures and humidity.
This period of sweltering weather coincides with the year’s heliacal (meaning “at sunrise”) rising of Sirius, the Dog Star. Sirius is part of the constellation Canis Majoris—the “Greater Dog”—which is where Sirius gets its canine nickname, as well as its official name, Alpha Canis Majoris. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky, not including our own Sun.
As I have previously noted, growing up on a rural Georgia farm, we just thought this time of the year was called “Dog Days” because it was so hot that most of the local dogs literally laid up under the porch refusing to come out from the shade for most any purpose other then to eat and drink.
Either way, the dog days of summer have clearly arrived here in east Tennessee. As I write this, the forecast for the next five days is well into the high 90’s, with the humidity pushing the heat index well above 100!
In light of this, where will “yours truly” be? You guessed it – laid out under the porch in the shade refusing to come out for any other reason other than food and drink! Not really.
But the high temperatures have forced me to adapt. So what I have decided to do is to rearrange my daily schedule in order that the very first thing I do is to go take my daily walk. After all, virtually every other activity I undertake, apart from yard work and property upkeep, is done indoors – at least it is this time of year.
I have found that if I get up, get going, get done, and get back home, I can beat much of the heat and humidity. Sure, I still face the heat throughout the day. Only, I do so a little less severely. And yet, even while walking early these days, I find that I still quickly “face the heat”.
As I did so earlier this morning, I thought about the fact that many a time in my life, I have resisted sweating at all cost. How many times have I bathed, powdered, and applied antiperspirant before dressing and going forth to face the day, only to them find myself in some circumstance wherein I found myself “feeling the heat”?
In so many of these circumstances, how often did I wipe my brow, grab my shirt just below the collar and fan it back and forth furiously, or fan myself feverishly with anything handy?! All in a vain attempt to fend off the inevitable flush of sweat that was forthcoming!
Nowadays, however, I have adopted a different approach. These days, I have finally decided to embrace the sweat! That is to say, I have accepted the fact that, in an approximately 4.5 mile walk, I am going to break out in a sweat. Therefore, the sooner it happens, the better. The quicker I get “heated”, all my pores open up, and my body is flooded with sweat, the better off I am going to be!
After all, is that not what nature intended? My body only sweats in order to cool itself off. If I fight this, I fight nature. Conversely, if I embrace this, then I embrace nature. The same old folks who knew about “Dog Days” also knew about sweat.
For this reason, they would go out into the fields, even on the hottest of days, adorned in long sleeve shirts. Why? Because they knew that as quick as they got hot and sweated, their shirts would be drenched and they would be soaked. Then, whenever a breeze blew, they would cool off quicker!
Now, which approach is more prudent in the long run? To fight perspiration at all cost or simply to embrace the sweat and move forward?! After a lifetime of choosing the former, I’ve now decided to choose the latter. And I’m finding it not only preferential, but also highly beneficial!
As those of you who are my regular readers might expect, my continued reflections on this have led me to a spiritual application. Allow me to expound. You see, many a time within the pages of Holy Scripture, we find individuals who came up against seemingly insurmountable odds, and had the choice either to resist the complications of their circumstances in order not to find themselves made uncomfortable, or else to “man up” and embrace their difficulties.
Names like Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Elijah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, Peter, and Paul all come to mind. Let alone the name of Jesus Christ! In each and every one of these situations, the individuals involved faced the heat, embraced the sweat, and eventually finished the course.
Little wonder that the Apostle James writes in his New Testament letter that we should…
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, a whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Given this, I, for one, have learned to consider the heat of this world as a reason to consider it all pure joy!
And so, my friend, what are you up against? Are you facing the proverbial heat? Are things getting a little hot for you right now?
Is the temperature unbearable in some given relationship, circumstance, and/or context? Then why not just “man up” and embrace the sweat?!
Trust me, addressing the pressing issue (or issues) at hand will invariably prove far more beneficial than avoiding or postponing the inevitable. What is more, you may well discover that addressing the issue (or issues) may well prove that it was nowhere near as bad in the end as you might have anticipated or feared!
These days, irrespective of the heat, I find that the latter portion of my daily walk is actually quite refreshing. So much so that I consider it the reward for my earlier acquiescence to the impending rise in temperature. In other words, at the end of the trail, I sure am thankful that I did not spend the majority of my journey simply seeking to avoid discomfort.
And in the end, this helps me to count it all, no matter how hot it may have been in the moment, as pure joy!
SOURCE:
https://www.almanac.com/content/what-are-dog-days-summer.
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/niv/james/1.htm.