Vacations by David Williams
This entry was posted on 3/22/2007 9:57 AM and is filed under Balanced Living.
We are nearly at the end of March, one quarter now gone. Your reaction to that is probably typical. "Boy, time flies." "I'm glad its Spring." "I thought it was still February." “What year is it?”
I am also going to guess there is a little angst under there too. Am I reaching my goals? Am I being productive? If this happens three more times will it be a good year? An objective review of these questions is entirely appropriate. God asks those same questions. A subjective review, what it says about your sense of worth or achievement, is not. God has no issues there.
If you are wondering the former, the objective questions, good. But don't wonder too long. Find an answer and move on. Meet with your leadership team. Review and revise your strategic plan. Call me, lets talk. Whatever. But get happy about the future and move into it expectantly.
However, I also know the latter questions, the subjective ones, may nag at you as well. I am not going to give you a Holy Spirit talk or a God's Love And Forgiveness talk right now, as wonderful as they are. Instead I will ask a different question. Are you just tired?
If so, take a couple of days off. And I want you to do so freely, with no guilt about what is undone while you rest. Handle the objective questions and become expectant. Get your rest and become renewed. To keep from mixing the two, letting one ruin the other, consider the following:
* Do not make the classic mistake of imputing to your vacation time the same erroneous views that the world makes about work. Vacation is not a time to do what one would otherwise do if he/she didn't have to work. Vacation is not an escape. If you think it is, you know where that leads. If those feelings are there deal with them before you take another vacation day, or you'll just waste it.
* Vacation is not earned. It is not something I have a right to, something to be grasped. It is a provision.
* A home life cannot be rebuilt on vacation, or a new character built, though a process can be begun there.
* Whatever you think you might do or find or be on vacation, forget it. Its not there. But you can find one thing: rest.
None of this has anything to do with how you rest. Some people paint. Some skydive. Some travel. Whatever. I only ask one thing. Don't let normal needs for rest and renewal go misdiagnosed and unaddressed. Are you certain God is happy with you and is directing your future? If not, get there. If yes, and you are still tired, take a few days off.
David