S2 Ep.19-Summer Joys!

Summer has a way of making everything feel more alive, and that includes the parts of us that have been running on empty. From open windows and birdsong to gardens, thunderstorms, and fireflies at dusk, we lean into the question many of us quietly carry: how do you find joy when life is still heavy?

We turn to Psalm 100, one of the most joyful passages in Scripture, and we sit with what it actually asks of us. It doesn’t require a perfect mood or a problem-free week. It invites glad worship, honest gratitude, and a deep remembering that we belong to God, held with tenderness like sheep in a pasture. That shift matters when modern life pulls our attention under fluorescent lights and endless screens, leaving us tired in ways we can barely explain.

Then a simple backyard battle with squirrels at a bird feeder becomes a living parable. The seed still spills, the forest shows up to feast, and suddenly there are turkeys, chipmunks, rabbits, and unexpected joy with our kids. We connect that surprise to the Holy Spirit’s gentle persistence: even when we say, “Not now, I don’t have time,” God keeps tapping our shoulder, and sometimes the interruption becomes the pathway to abundance.

If you’re craving Christian encouragement, summer reflection, biblical joy, and practical gratitude that doesn’t slip into forced positivity, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a breath of hope, and leave a review with the small ordinary moment that’s helping you rediscover joy.

Let's Get Into It!!

Transcript

Summer Beauty As Invitation

Speaker 0:08

Welcome friends to Ancient Truth for the Modern Heart. I'm Steve Pozzato, and as always, I'm grateful and glad that you're here to spend this time with me. All my friends here in Connecticut, where I am broadcasting from, today I have the windows thrown open. It is around 70 degrees, maybe a little warmer. The sun is shining. There is a slight breeze and low humidity. It is a perfect day. A great day for a hike. A great day for getting out and viewing the wonders of God and the world around us. A great day to listen to the songs of birds. A great day to watch butterflies and to watch bees buzz about doing their daily work. It's a great day to be joyful. And as this episode releases, summer is beginning to unfold around us here in the Northeast. The days are stretching longer, trees are full again, gardens are growing, and again, windows are open. The world today feels to me just a little bit more alive. And there is something about this season that seems to awaken something else in us as well. And that's not because summer magically solves our problems. Life is still going to be life. People still carry grief, stress, uncertainty, loneliness, and exhaustion. But summer has a way of reminding us that beauty still exists alongside all of that. The warmth of sunlight, the sound of birds early in the morning, children laughing outside, the smell of cut grass, rainstorms rolling in after humid afternoons, fireflies at dusk, fresh vegetables from gardens, conversations on porches. These small things matter.

Psalm 100 And Glad Worship

Speaker 2:35

And perhaps that's why today's scripture, Psalm 100, feels so fitting for this season. It's one of the most joyful psalms in all the scripture, I believe. It begins, make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. What I love about this psalm is that it doesn't demand perfection before joy can exist. It simply invites us to notice and participate, to remember. It is he that made us, and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of the pasture. There is tenderness there, and belonging, and care. The image is not of distant humanity trying to earn God's attention. It's the image of people already held within divine care. And maybe that's part of what summer can remind us of as well: that we are not disconnected from creation, that we belong within it, no matter what we do.

Losing Wonder In Modern Life

Speaker 3:53

I think sometimes modern life pulls us away from this awareness as we rush from one responsibility to another. And we live under fluorescent lights. We spend more time looking at screens than at sunsets. And many of us are tired in ways we can barely describe, and slowly, without even realizing it, we can lose our sense of wonder. But then summer arrives, and suddenly creation begins preaching again. Flowers bloom without asking permission. Trees stretch toward light. Bird song begins before dawn. Gardens grow quietly while nobody is watching under the sunlight and under the moonlight. And all of it whispers the same truth. Life continues in abundance.

The Bird Feeder Squirrel Parable

Speaker 4:58

I'm reminded of our own yard where we struggle with squirrels on the bird feeder. And my father-in-law concocted a mechanism, an arm that can be lowered from a higher deck, which keeps it out of the reach of animals like bears, but also has a contraption to keep the squirrels out. But all that time trying to keep the squirrels out, and what did they do? They found that if they just shook the chain, the seed would fall to the ground. Life continues. And so all that time trying to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeder, and you know what happened? They still got the seed anyway, and not only that, but because now there was seed on the ground, there were wild turkeys in the yard with their hens. Now there were chipmunks. Now there were opossums abounding. Now that area was beginning to fertilize the ground and clover grew, and now there were rabbits. So all of this, as we tried to keep something out, just like when we try to keep the Holy Spirit at bay, not today, we say, perhaps in our loneliness or in our feelings of being trapped, I don't have time. Please stop. You're ruining this, and I can't focus on it. Get out of my head. I don't have time, I have to focus. While we were busy shaking out that thing so we could focus on another, while we were busy trying to stop the squirrels, God said, Watch what happens. Yes, you stopped the squirrels from getting on the bird feeder, but they still spilled the seeds because the squirrels never went away. And look what happened. All that time you spent trying to stop the squirrels, and now life has come. Life in abundance. The whole of the forest has come to eat off the ground, to eat the seed that was spilled, while we were trying to stop other things. And that is God, my friends. That's God. What a great metaphor, I think, because in that moment, while we were trying to stop the very thing, the very thing that was just trying to eat and just trying to be thankful for the things that we were feeding it, perhaps unwittingly. That thing became the very nurturing spirit that shook us and invited God to come in. That invited God to come in in abundance because life continues. My friends, the squirrels were never going to stop coming. That Holy Spirit, God, was never going to stop shaking us. Maybe that was the clue to pay attention. The tap on the shoulder, hey, I'm still here. But okay, okay. If this is a nuisance to you, watch what happens. I will spill the seed, and other life will come. And now my own children love when the turkeys come in the backyard. They love to watch and they love to become silent so they don't scare them away. In the absence of the squirrels hanging on the feeder, came joy. In the absence of another creature eating all of the seed, there came happiness. There came moments outside that made me realize, that made me look down and see the happiness of my children when they saw the rabbits, or when we saw the opossums slink by in night, or the chipmunks skitter about. We tried to keep them out. But God brought joy instead.

Gratitude Without Forced Positivity

Speaker 9:36

And biblical joy has never meant pretending that everything is easy. The people who first sang these psalms understood suffering very well. They knew exile and grief, they knew uncertainty, pression, and fear, and yet still they sang, Enter his gates with thanksgiving. Not because life was perfect, but because gratitude helped them remember that they were not abandoned, and just when they thought that they had pushed it out of the way when they could hear no more, God showed up with joy. And I think that matters deeply today because many people struggle with joy. And it's not because they're ungrateful, but because life has simply been heavy for a long time, right? And maybe what Psalm 100 offers us is permission to rediscover joy gently. It's not forced positivity. We didn't force the animals to come and eat of seed, and we weren't intentionally feeding them, but came they did anyway. Not because we were pretending that pain doesn't exist, but because we are learning again how to notice goodness. There's a lesson in all of life around us. Squirrels are pretty small. And yet they brought us joy in this way that we had not thought they would. And sometimes joy begins very small. Sometimes it's a cool breeze through the window. It's a phone call from someone you love. It's a ripe tomato from the garden, coffee on the porch, a familiar song on the radio, a dog sleeping peacefully nearby, watching sunlight move across a room. And these moments may seem ordinary, but perhaps holiness has always lived inside ordinary things.

Small Ordinary Moments Of Holiness

Speaker 11:42

So it makes me think about one of the beautiful truths within Psalm 100. It's the praise that is communal. Make a joyful noise, all the earth. My friends, if you want to be honest, sing. I can't remember who said it, but it is one of the sayings that has stuck with me for many years now. I'm sure it's from some movie somewhere. And if you think of it, comment, let me know. But that's the truth, isn't it? Even our prayers, even the times that we are just speaking with God or speaking to one another in communion, we are singing, even though we do not move the melody with our lips. It is our heart's song. And when we are praying, when we are in the presence of God, it is always the right melody. And it is always being sung from our hearts. Because, my friends, that is a love that never ever stops. And that song, when we are speaking, when we are alone and speaking with God honestly, one to one, or when we are speaking with other friends, with God in mind and in communion, that song is what pulls us forward. So, my friends, even if you are not singing melodies, make a joyful noise, all of you, all the earth. And I'll sing with you.

Creation Joins The Song Of Praise

Speaker 13:28

There is something deeply inclusive about that as well, that creation itself participates in praise. The wind in the trees, the ocean waves, summer rain, bird song, human laughter, all of it becomes part of creation's ongoing hymn. And maybe that's why spending time outdoors can sometimes feel strangely spiritual, even when no words are spoken. For me, I feel this in the forest, sitting in a bed of moss under a tree. There's a connection there that I think we have lost in our busy lives sometimes. When we ground ourselves, put our bare feet in the dirt, plant something that can live with our bare hands. There's a connection there. And creation has a way of reconnecting to us to God's presence as well. It invites us to do those things, to do that work, to take off our shoes and remember that the ground is always there, waiting for us to reconnect. Jesus understood that too. So much of Jesus' teaching happens outdoors, in fields and gardens, on mountains and on seashores, and again and again, Scripture reminds us that God is not confined to buildings alone, and the natural world itself becomes a place of encounter. And summer very often gives us opportunities to remember that.

Summer Slowness And Spiritual Attention

Speaker 15:12

And I also think there's something healing about summer's slowness, or at least the invitation toward slowness. There are longer evenings, which means more time outdoors, which means moments that feel less rushed. And in those slower moments, many people rediscover things they forgot they needed. They needed rest, conversation, silence, beauty, playfulness, wonder. Psalm 100 invites that same openness of heart. It reminds us that gratitude is not merely politeness directed toward God. Gratitude instead is spiritual awareness. It is the ability to recognize that love still exists, and that beauty still exists, and that grace still exists even now. As we begin closing today, I want to have you think about this. Perhaps one of the holiest things we can do this summer is simply to pay attention. Notice the world around us again. Let creation soften us and allow joy to return in small and quiet ways. Psalm 100 reminds us that praise does not always have to be dramatic. Sometimes praise sounds like laughter shared around a table, or planting flowers, or sitting quietly beneath a tree. Getting your bare feet in the touch of grass, looking at the animals, watching as they fly about and scurry on the earth, as God intended them to do. Let us be in communion with one another as God intended us to do. Let us be reminded that even when we try to remove something we think is a nuisance, that God will bring in abundance great joy. And maybe that is enough. Maybe God delights in those small moments more than we realize. I think he does. I truly do.

Prayer For Abundant Joy

Speaker 17:52

And so, my friends, let us pray together. God of unending love, your joy is in all of the bird songs. Your joy is in the peace of the earth. It is in the touch of grass and the feeling of dirt beneath our fingertips. It is in the laughter of children, it is in the shining sun, the boundless sky, the colors of a sunset that remind us that we will never be in this moment again. The hugs from those we love, the embraces of those we care for. God, your joy is surrounding us, and no matter when we try to push you away, no matter when we say, No, God, I don't have time, no matter when we say, I cannot dance with the Spirit now, Lord, I am busy, Lord, remind us that you will show up with abundant joy. To show us that trying to push something away brought you closer. May we be reminded that you are always there. Even when we don't feel you, and even when we think we don't have time, remind us that you love us so much that instead of saying, Fine, I'll just go, you come back with greater hope and greater love and greater joy and greater peace. May we all recognize such moments. Amen. And my friends, thank you for joining me once again on Ancient Truth for the Modern Heart. And as summer unfolds around you, I hope that you find moments of peace, of wonder and quiet joy in the ordinary beauty of life. And wherever this season finds you, joyful or grieving, energetic or weary, may you remember that you are still held with the goodness of God's creation. So until next time, farewell and be well, and remember to carry the light of love. For wherever you carry love, there shall you go in peace.