There's an old blues ballad from Porgy and Bess that goes, "Summertime, an' the livin' is easy,/Fish are jumpin', an' the cotton is high. .../So hush, little baby, don' you cry." "Summertime," words by DuBose Heyward, music by George Gershwin. Copyright © 1935 by Gershwin Publishing Corporation. Copyright Renewed, Assigned to Chappell & Company. International Copyright Secured. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Printed in the U.S.A. Unauthorized copying, arranging adapting, recording or public performance is an infringement of copyright. Infringers are liable under the law.
Summertime living, easy living—most people naturally want to be free of worries and anxiety, to have life without the burdens of uncertainty, care, struggle, or hardship. Yet for many today it would seem that the notion of a life without care has also come to represent a life without responsibility. And while there is certainly nothing ennobling about worry or anxiety, no thinking person who comprehends something of the serious challenges our world is facing could possibly believe that a life without responsibility might actually be equated with the "good life."
A truly good life may in fact include significant struggles, surely hard work, on behalf of what's right and what's needed to help solve the urgent problems humanity is contending with. The life of a committed Christian, then, can only be a life of responsibility and willing service.
