Vacation=Clarity

We were on vacation for the last 2 weeks (woo-hoo!)...had a great time out in the beauty of Oregon. You can always tell when it's been a really good vacation because coming back in to regular life is extra difficult!

I came away from vacation this year understanding anew why vacation (and by extension, sabbath) is so important. It's not simply about the need for rest and renewal though those are valid. But when you take a break from life as normal for an extended time, i think there is a wonderful gift of clarity that comes

It wasn't until i went on vacation that I could see how unhealthy my work schedule is. It wasn't until i didn't have 15 urgent items on my to-do list every day that i saw that i'm trying to do too much. It wasn't until i got to immerse myself in my family that i realized how cool my family is and how much more time they need from me.

Of course making all these changes is a tough thing to do, and after being back only 5 days i feel like i'm already losing the battle, but i wouldn't even know what to do if i didn't have the time away to see things as they actually are. Perhaps God knew what he was doing when he only made it light outside for so many hours each day. And maybe he wasn't being a jerk when he commanded us to take a day off after 6 of working. It just might be that all those "breaks" they talked about in the Bible weren't only because the "protestant work ethic" hadn't been invented yet to show the Old Testament people how lazy they were :)

So let me finish this by encouraging you to do a very un-american thing. Take ALL of your vacation time this year to get away from regular life. And while you're there spend extra time with God asking for clarity on how to make your life better reflect HIS design for it.