Vacationing from God

Summer Break!

As a high school student I could not wait for summer break! I hate to admit it, but I began to get the itch for summer break by mid October. What is not to like about summer break? Sleeping in, no schedule, vacation, freedom, BBQ, church camp, missions trip, late night bonfires, etc.

Vacationing from the normal schedule and school is fine, but taking a vacation from God is not. However, too often we get out of our normal routine and the first thing to go is our time with God. Some like to refer to it as a daily Quiet Time, daily Devotions, or RE:Charge as I am trying to call it. Why is it that this discipline is often to the most overlooked and easiest to drop?

One obvious answer is our sinful nature gets in the way. How many times do we begin to make plans and have our own agenda for it? We actually plan it all out without really including God in it, because we want to control our plans and think we want the outcome. I praise God for His gift of the Holy Spirit who always brought me back into check before I could really make a fool of myself.

I’m thinking of the time I went to East Harbor State Park for a camping trip with my family. I grew up in church, Good News Clubs, youth group and Christian schools. I had about a bazillion Christian event t-shirts (still do! Ha), and I distinctly remember not wanting to pack them for this trip. I was finally old enough to hop on my bike and go down to where all the teenagers hangout by myself and just be “Brad.” Actually I wanted to be “Bad Brad!” I wanted to be on vacation from God and do my on thing, to rebel with the crowd and do whatever. However, I have never been real good at lying. And anytime I found myself in a situation like this, someone would ask a question that opened the door for my faith to enter the story. Once my faith was out in the open I knew I had to live a testimony. For some reason I just couldn’t lie and pretend. Like I said, I thank God for His Holy Spirit that helped keep me from doing the foolish things I thought I wanted to do.

I know too well the temptation to go on “vacation from God.” We always justify it and say we will get back to it when we get home. However, it’s has a snowball effect. You skip one day, then the next and then the next. The next thing you know you haven’t picked up your Bible all summer except to carry it to church. This is not a healthy pattern for a Christian.

Spiritual Nourishment

Here in America, most of us eat pretty regularly. Due to technology, cars and sedentary lifestyles of most Americans we develop an attitude of “eating for pleasure” rather then an “eat out of necessity” attitude. Yet when we begin to train physically for something or we look at athletes and soldiers we see how important the proper nutrition is. Yet we all eat.

Only two types of people don’t eat. Can you name them? Sick people and dead people don’t eat. Dead people don’t eat because they are dead. I know that was redundant. Sick people, whether it is physical, emotional or psychological, may go through seasons where they don’t eat. In physical sickness, the body might turn off cravings and appetites as it try’s to heal other areas, but loss of appetite typically is an indicator that something is wrong. Emotional and psychological sicknesses that lead to one not eating means that their view of food or themselves is out of whack. When your not eating, you should be aware that something is wrong.

Spiritually speaking, we need a regular and proper feasting on God’s Word to maintain a healthy growing Christian life. If we are not going to the banquet table of God’s Word on a regular basis then it indicates one of two things: we are spiritually sick or spiritually dead.

Unconfessed sin in a believers life will rob them of the joy and desire to read God’s Word. You begin to think about yourself and the Word of God wrongly. Your spiritual mind is out of whack and in need of realignment.

Maybe you’ve grown up in a Christian home and in church but you have no desire for God’s Word. You may not even be a Christian. You should begin to ask yourself the basic questions to determine if you have truly trusted in Jesus Christ or have you been trusting your family tradition?

Either way, if you are spiritually sick you need to run to Jesus for healing and forgiveness. If you are spiritually dead, you need to run to Jesus for a spiritual quickening, to be made spiritually alive.

RE:Charge

Look for a few moments each day to get away from the business of life to listen to and talk to Jesus. Don’t get stuck in the rut that there is only one way to do a quiet time. Don’t think about your devotions out of guilt, like you may not do it right or you might disappoint God. The idea is to go to Jesus to recharge you, to encourage you to inspire you. You want to spend time with Jesus.

Think about the times you hangout with your best friend. Do you always do the same thing together? How many of you would still have a best friend if every time you saw them you said the exact same phrases, half-heartedly read an old letter, shared a few thoughts and said goodbye without any variation? That sounds boring!!

With my best friend I sometimes go golfing, hiking, eating, grabbing a cup of coffee, or just being silly. We talk about everything! Nothing is off limits. Sometimes we are just together, no verbal communication needed, just knowing we are there for each other is enough. Other times we talk real serious like and pray together. It’s organic, alive and fun.

I want you to think about that this summer when you have extra free time and an open schedule. Spend time with Jesus the way you do with a best friend. Listen to Him, talk to Him, just hangout with Him. Grab your Bible and go for a hike. Do your favorite activity and talk to Him about it. Tell Him everything. Try forgetting form prayers and just chat with Him.

Don’t take a vacation from God. Vacation with God and get recharged!