For most of my adult life, I’ve lived from vacation to vacation.
Something about daily life drains us so profoundly that weekends aren’t enough to refill our tank. We limp along throughout the year, dreaming about the week or weeks off coming to us, pinning our hopes on that extended sabbath to help us recover. When our vacations arrive, we’re relieved, but end up counting down the days until we must return to work. When that day comes, we’re not ready for it. The familiar anxiety returns. And off we go, for another year—or until our next break, whenever that comes.
Sound familiar?
Again, that was my life, for most my life. But during my vacation this year, God led me through a personal journey so rejuvinating that I couldn’t wait to get back to work. Honestly, I’ve never felt so ready to jump back in. I didn’t just get a ‘vacation.’ I got a series of ‘holy-days’—which is what a holiday is supposed to be!
Over the next few posts, I’m going to share what God taught me so you can run with it in your own life.
Four important words
On day one of my vacation I went for a long walk. I’d recently listened to an episode of Annie Downs’ podcast, That Sounds Fun, featuring a conversation with author, counselor, and speaker John Eldredge. John encouraged the listeners (Uh, me!) to ask God what He wanted for my vacation. So that’s what I did.
As I walked, God gave me four important words, then started defining them for me. These four create a sacred journey God has for our souls—for vacations, sure, but also for regular life. The four words are rest, repentance, restoration, and renewal.
Rest
Rest is about freedom from regular strain or responsibility. We slow our pace, and stop doing some things altogether. This alone can be a battle, or it can start one. But without rest, we cannot follow Jesus fully into repentance, restoration, and renewal.
Repentance
Repentance is about facing our flesh with Jesus. The goal is to find liberation from lies, behaviors, and bondage we’ve become tangled in throughout our daily lives. Without repentance, there can be no true restoration and renewal.
Restoration
Restoration is about replenishing and healing what’s been spent, broken, or stolen, so that we can live with energy and joy.
Renewal
Renewal is the final step. It’s about recovering what’s been lost and forgotten, so we can focus on our true purpose for living.
Picnics, sabbath, and the pace of life
Yes, we need frizbee in the park. We need hikes, bikes, our puppies, and our picnics. We need the comfort of a good book and crackling campfires. Our souls are nourished by delicious food and laughter with friends and family. But as always, our deepest and truest need is spiritual. And without that recalibration, we won’t ever be fully ready to face the days ahead.
Walking with God every day, letting him pace us, is mission critical. Good sleeps, healthy eating, regular exercise, and ongoing communion with God is our lifeline. As someone has said, a vacation can’t fix what an unhealthy pace has created.
Even if we pace ourselves well, a weekly sabbath is vital (and commanded by God!). Daily balance is elusive and often out of our control. As the work week progresses, we fall behind. Our output exceeds our input. A day of sabbath slows us down enough—and long enough—to start refilling our cup.
Unfortunately, modern life is so relentless that it’s unsustainable long term. Even a weekly sabbath is largely insufficient to revitalize us. I believe we need extended vacation time once or twice a year to engage in the rest, repentance, restoration and renewal I’ve been describing.
As we embrace God’s gift of rest, our unhealthiness emerges. God’ leads us through a process of repentance, deliverance, and finding fresh freedom in Christ. Along the way, we experience his restoration—our physical and emotional ‘gas tank’ is refuelled, increasing our capacity again. And finally, as we walk in God’s healing, our lives are refocused on our purpose. We re-enter the regular grind armed with a readiness only He can give us. It’s a beautiful thing.
In my next post, I’ll start diving deeper into these four, starting with rest.
