It’s good to rest, to put aside worries and responsibilities for a time and revel in the gifts God has given us.

By Jodi Detrick

If the pictures popping up on Facebook are any indication, vacation season is here again. Several of my friends are taking trips, visiting people they love but rarely get to spend time with, and setting aside normal routines to relax, play and reconnect with joy.

Thanks to some kind friends who recently allowed us access to their beautiful mountain cabin, our whole family, including the grandgirls, got to spend a few days in — well, if not paradise, just a Frisbee’s toss from there. We canoed, swam, fished, hiked, lobbed water balloons, played games, sang around the campfire and, yes, had more s’mores than was prudent.

Never mind that some of us tipped over in the canoe and took an unplanned plunge into the icy-cold stream fed by melting snow — or that most of us did a gift exchange with several hungry mosquitoes (we gave them our blood and they left us a nice assortment of itchy, red bumps). It was an imperfect blast despite these minor mishaps — we were together as a family creating new memories that will last long after all the bug bites fade and the bottle of sunscreen is put away for another season.

As we cleaned the cabin, packed up all our things and drove away with grateful hearts, I thought about how much work it can be to rest. It takes plenty of effort to plan a real getaway, and even more labor to make it happen. Long before we’d arrived, our friends, Brian and Amy, had labored hard through untold days and many months to clear that property, build the cabin and then stock it with all the necessities to make it such a great place to relax. Rest takes work.

Have you noticed? Rest looks different to different people. A book and a beach would bore some to death; they want the mountains, a sturdy kayak and whitewater to feel alive. Some like roughing it in a tent; others prefer a hotel with room service, thank you very much! And for many in this economy, a staycation fits the bill. In whatever form it comes, we all need rest. But what we need to rest from might be more than the daily grind.

Often, the hardest part about getting away to real, honest-to-goodness, rejuvenating rest has little to do with airline tickets, finding someone to watch the dog and water the plants, or figuring out what to pack. The real struggle to “vacate” (the root of vacation, which means to be “empty, free from duty, or at leisure”) is more about disengaging from our work and worries, from our “to do” lists and they-can’t-get-along-without-me state of mind.

A couple of years ago Don and I were finally taking a break after months of intense responsibilities and nonstop activity. Yet I was wondering if it was wise to go away at that time, with so many undone things still on our plates. Maybe you can relate to these thoughts-turned-prayer from my journal:

It’s so good to get away and yet so hard to leave behind all the weights and worries, all the duties and decisions of daily life. Just for today, Lord, let me cut the tethers that tie me to a hundred “shoulds” and a string of “I’ve got to’s” and just be.

Let me be with You in a fresh awareness of who You are — the God who made blueberries and baby skunks, tree bark and thunderclouds, shimmering lakes and that sparkle in the eye of a good friend. Let me be with Don in his joy of discovering old museums, traces of history worth a personal expedition in our “I’ll-Google-it-and-read-about-it” world, and beauty requiring us to pull over for a photo op (again) in out-of-the-way places.

Let me touch with the keen sensitivity that only comes at a slower pace, old wood worn smooth by decades of use from other hands now gone, the soft fabric of wild-rose petals growing in lovely tangles along an old fence, and my husband’s just-fits-mine hand.

Let me taste the exquisite fare brought to our table, savoring each bite without mentally counting calories or obsessing about how much time on the treadmill this leisurely meal will cost.

Let me be easy, free, unplanned, unencumbered. Just for today.

Of all the things that could’ve been included in the Bible, but weren’t, it says this:

Jesus took a nap. — Luke 8:23

And he took it even when trouble was brewing — or maybe even because trouble was brewing. He also said to his disciples in Mark 6:31, Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest (NIV).

Maybe you should do the same — just for today.

 

Jodi Detrickis a minister with the Northwest Ministry Network (Assemblies of God). She is also a public speaker, an author and a life coach. Visit the Seattle Times for more.

Article first published in the Seattle Times, July 27, 2012.Â