For many of us, July is a key month to take a vacation. I, myself, will be taking a couple of weeks off work this month. I wonder, however, if any of us actually stop and consider the purposes of our vacations and whether or not we have any kind of biblical paradigm to guide us as we plan our vacations every year.
To that end, please allow me to share my reasons for going off on vacations. As far I can tell, the word vacation and even the concept of a vacation is absence from clear explicit biblical teaching. Although, I would argue that the Lord gave Elijah a 40 day break from Elijah’s ministry (i.e. a vacation) to help him recover from his depression. While I realize that my conclusion from 1 Kings 19:8 is debateably deduced, I am comfortable with this extrapolation.
For me, the paradigm for a “non-working” vacation is grounded in the biblical orbit of the Sabbath. Shabbat, in the Hebrew language, clearly means taking a day or even a longer time to rest from work in order to prepare ourselves to return to our labors with renewed vigor for the Lord our God. Following this general line of biblical reasoning, I see my purposes for my vacations to be as follows:
1. Rest-- to rest from work; what is often sad is that we cram so doggone much into our vacation time that we find ourselves exhausted at the end of the vacation time and in need of another vacation in order to recover from our first vacation.
2. Renewal--my vacations are not intended to be an escape from my work but rather to renew myself to return to my labors
3. Reflection--as the Lord’s Day Shabbat is intended to free me from my concerns of work so as to focus my attentions upon the Lord in worship, study, contemplation, and reflections, this also should be my purpose during my vacation time.
4. Romance--this is a time for me to refresh my romance with my God, my romance with my wife, my romance with my family, and my romance with this fantastic life with which the Lord has blessed me.
To that end, please allow me to share my reasons for going off on vacations. As far I can tell, the word vacation and even the concept of a vacation is absence from clear explicit biblical teaching. Although, I would argue that the Lord gave Elijah a 40 day break from Elijah’s ministry (i.e. a vacation) to help him recover from his depression. While I realize that my conclusion from 1 Kings 19:8 is debateably deduced, I am comfortable with this extrapolation.
For me, the paradigm for a “non-working” vacation is grounded in the biblical orbit of the Sabbath. Shabbat, in the Hebrew language, clearly means taking a day or even a longer time to rest from work in order to prepare ourselves to return to our labors with renewed vigor for the Lord our God. Following this general line of biblical reasoning, I see my purposes for my vacations to be as follows:
1. Rest-- to rest from work; what is often sad is that we cram so doggone much into our vacation time that we find ourselves exhausted at the end of the vacation time and in need of another vacation in order to recover from our first vacation.
2. Renewal--my vacations are not intended to be an escape from my work but rather to renew myself to return to my labors
3. Reflection--as the Lord’s Day Shabbat is intended to free me from my concerns of work so as to focus my attentions upon the Lord in worship, study, contemplation, and reflections, this also should be my purpose during my vacation time.
4. Romance--this is a time for me to refresh my romance with my God, my romance with my wife, my romance with my family, and my romance with this fantastic life with which the Lord has blessed me.
