Vacation vs. Gospel Rest
Pastor’s Note:
We hope you are enjoying these hot summer days!
In light of these days that are often filled with travel and vacations, we wanted to repost an older article written by our former pastor, Connan Kublik, written back in the summer of 2019.
We are praying that you will enjoy a safe, enjoyable, and deeply restful summer!
I imagine you really need a break right now.
Winter was long and dreary. Spring seemed to take forever to turn into summer. Work schedules and bosses gave timelines and made demands that felt unreasonable. School may have been rewarding, but study and exams took a deep toll. The kids are fun and cute, but they are also getting on your nerves a bit. You are simply not as creative and productive as you usually are. But do you ever feel a little guilty for taking some time away?
God fashioned humans to be workers and image him and his work. But he also designed regular rhythms of rest. A third of every day is spent in sleep. One day of each work week is for a sabbath day of rest. Jewish festivals built further times of rest and recreation into the lives of God’s people. In other words, we should enjoy holidays and other opportunities to rest and recharge because this is the way God designed it. Proper rest allows us to take care of both our tired bodies and our weary souls. You need a change of scenery and some rest to recharge your batteries so that you can come back and re-engage work “from the heart, as something done for the Lord” (Col. 3:23).
But as you might be getting ready to take some time off, consider the important difference between going on a vacation and finding true rest. All too often, we settle for vacations where we “vacate” our work and the other parts of our regular life for a particular destination (the cottage at the lake, the campground, the resort, etc.). Or we think that we are going to recharge by doing a particular sport or activity that we really love (golf, hike, bike, read, etc.). We hope and assume that simply changing our place, pace, and activity will lead us to truly rest.
True rest is not found in a specific place, or a change of pace, but ultimately in a person.
Going on holidays to places we love and doing things we love with the people we love is a wonderful thing! But true rest is not found in a specific place, or a change of pace, but ultimately in a person. Jesus tells us that he is the source of true rest for our souls in Matthew 11:28-29: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
If this is the case, then we cannot find true rest in any place other than Christ. So take that holiday and pursue the activities you love! But do not forsake deepening the relationship with God in Christ that will give you what you are really looking for. Bring along your Bible and prayer journal, and take some extra time to dive deep. Nurture relationships with your church and small groups. Enter into the way God designed you to find rest for your souls, and then revel in it—so you can come back rested and reinvigorated to creatively engage the work God gives you.
Connan Kublik