On Vacation

The 23rd Psalm describes God giving a pleasure in an odd way:  "He makes me lie down in green pastures..."  "Makes me"?  How strange.  Shouldn't rest come easy?

Maybe not.  The More clan recently took a week-long vacation to the mountains.  In that time Mrs. More and I drove to and attended a wedding reception some 250 miles from the mountain house and drove back; we hit the golf practice range 3 times, with the kids; played a round of golf; fly fished; white-water rafted; went out on a motor boat; went to the beach at the lake; visited the pool 3 times; and took a hike.  Oh yeah, I also worked 3 to 5 hours each morning.

Rest indeed.  While each activity was certainly fun--except the work part, it was one of our best trips--I looked at the whole week and wondered about the rest.  If we look at vacation as a time to restore the soul and lie in green pastures, one wonders if we can restore the soul at full-activity speed.  Is replacing the work day with fun outings sufficient?  I'm not sure.  Worse, I began wondering if the activity pace merely reflected my life in general.  Busy, busy, busy.

If you stretch a spring and let go, it returns to form.  Over short periods, it is designed to expand, then to contract.  If you keep it pulled for an extended time, however, it loses its original form--and function--and remains stretched forever.  The metal is distorted and it loses the shape intended by its designer--a shape that allows it to properly perform its proper functions.

I wonder if the go, go, go of life has caused even my resting time to require action--like a strange, draining addiction to activity.  I worry that if life is so stretched that I cannot rest even in a season of rest, I might be using my time improperly.  Worse still, over time, I might not like what is promised for eternity in Hebrews 4:

1 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.  2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said,
         "AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH,
         THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,"
         although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.

4 For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: "AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS"; 5 and again in this passage, "THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST." 6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 He again fixes a certain day, "Today," saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before,
         "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,
         DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS."

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. 9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.   10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.  11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.

10 "rests" in 11 verses.  Rest is the promise of heaven; it is what the author of Hebrews uses as the reward to draw us to obedience.  But can we rest?  Do we want to?  My concern is that if I've truly bent things to the point of not desiring rest, then maybe I've twisted my priorities in a way that reduces my desire to "be diligent to enter that rest."

Maybe that is why God makes us rest at times.   Forced rest can be beneficial to restoring us to our proper form.  Work then rest.  That's the warp and woof of life, that's how God Himself acted in creation and ministry.  It is, after all, the rest day that God sanctified, not the others.  Rest is the most holy, the most heavenly.

Lets be diligent to enter that rest,

Thomas More

allthesemore@yahoo.com

Comments

[Didymus]

Love it Tom. Gives me a great idea for a talk I'm going to do.
Thanks,
Didymus

[Thomas More]

Glad to help! What's your take on busy vacations?

[Philomena]

I also just got back from an activity-packed vacation. I completely agree with your observations, Thomas. Sometimes it seems like the idea of vacation has been hijacked by our desire to better ourselves, say we've been somewhere and done that. The only measure of vacation succcess is then the number of life-enriching activities we managed to cram in. If we just sat around and talked, then "how boring". Maybe it also goes back to the idea of being constantly overstimulated in our everyday lives. It is, as you say, much harder to stop than to just keep up the old pace.

[Portia]

Sir More,

Speaking of rest, or lack thereof, your official update is now posted. :)