Vacation...Undone (part 1)
The longstanding principle that we may know what we want, but God knows what we need was proved
true for the Weeda family once again two weeks ago as our expectations for a
restful and relaxing vacation fell humbly prey to God’s plan for…well, stopping
and resting.
Vacation is a loaded word. For starters, vacation is lightly loaded with hopes and dreams. The reality of vacation several months out gets us imagining the possibilities. Disneyland? Hawaii? An Alaskan cruise…or a Mediterranean cruise? “Oh Hun, do you think we can?” Vacation floats around our minds with ideals that may or may not come to be.
Later, however, vacation takes on more weight. It becomes more heavily loaded with plans. Saving money, checking websites, reading reviews, comparing rates, making phone calls, choosing dates and times, mapping routes. The ideals from months prior tend to fade into realities. Vacation comes down to earth a bit. Now you can grasp it and soon decisions are made, reservations are nailed down and enthusiasm begins to mount.
At last vacation bears the bulk laden load of preparing. Retrieve the luggage, do the laundry, empty the fridge of dairy products, recruit a neighbor for watering the garden, do more laundry, arrange to amuse the kids while driving, one final load of laundry, stack the van to the brim, grab coats just in case, potty breaks all around, turn off the lights in the kids’ bedrooms, close the garage door and hit the road. Finally, real and actual vacation; launch rest and relaxation, the proverbial “R&R.”
Well all that was our plan up until a few weeks ago. See, on the back side of all that loads down the idea of vacation is yet a greater parcel: the expectation that is assumed with taking one. Try turning to someone today and tell them you are taking a vacation, and wait for the question to come back… Generally an excited: “Where are you going?” An obvious question to be sure, after all the root of the word assumes some level of vacating: “We’re leaving. Checking out for a week by the lake or in the mountains or at the resort.” The Weeda Family’s expectation was to skip town for the Central Oregon Coast. Nice hotel with free breakfast, the aquarium, sunny days and sandy beaches. Top it off by visiting good friends and reminiscing around Portland a bit. Now that’s a vacation, planned and prepped. Certainly it could be more. But that’s all we really wanted and it fit nicely within the budget we had. However, though that is what we wanted, God knew what we needed.
Long story, short…we stayed home. While we had been whittling away the hours planning to vacate, wanting and expecting some well deserved “R&R,” God was holding his ground against all our wants and expectations with what He knew we needed. Where we pursued an escape; a space to turn to and run toward, God offered us time to stop and rest. Where we asked for the load of vacation, God gave us the lightened burden of Sabbath.
Sabbath comes from a clumsy sounding Hebrew word: Shabbat. The emphasis is hard on the last syllable. It’s tone is abrupt and halting. Shabbat. It sounds like a bump in the road; a pot hole with a sign next to it that says “SLOW” or “Motorcycles Use Caution.” I guess that makes it onomatopoeic – you know, a word that sounds like what it describes or is – because Sabbath is like that: A dip in life’s road with a sign next to it suggesting we slow way down or we will be wrecked.
Biblically, we are first introduced to Sabbath in Genesis 2…as a verb, not as a noun; as an action, or better as a posture, not as a place or thing, proper or otherwise. And it is right on the heels of creation’s story. Genesis 2:2-3 tells us “on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”
Now, certainly the first Sabbath did not take place because God was tired. He did not enter a time and space of Sabbath exhausted from the brightened blasts and careful craftsmanship of creating everything ex-nihilo, and so decided to escape for a breather on the bench. And frankly, neither should we. Later we’ll see a passage from Exodus 31 that indicates “[The LORD] rested and was refreshed.” The picture is not like that of an offensive lineman on the bench huffing and puffing and drinking Gatorade in front of those giant cold wind tunnel things as the ball is reversed on the field. Nor is the picture like that of an overworked executive escaping to a private tropical island to hide from his Smartphone for a week. The picture of the LORD being refreshed is that of reflection and glory and joy.
We stop on birthdays and anniversaries to look back at the previous year, to breathe deep the goodness of the year; the rich blessings, the movements of grace, the victories over trials, and we celebrate and cultivate joy for what is to come. Similarly, this first Sabbath was that of the LORD reflecting on the mighty work of His hands and all He had created, breathing deep the intrinsic goodness of it all, and taking glory and joy in what it would become. (Not one chapter later per se, but more likely, keeping all history in view, what it would become at the end of the story.) We do well to enter a time and space of Sabbath in like manner; reflecting on the days behind and finding joy unto the days ahead, rather than gasping for breath, having been run ragged by the week’s demands. If the latter sounds like what you have known, you need to catch on to the rhythm being set forth here at the outset of Scripture.
To be sure, the reader is left with the solemn and repeated reminder that God did not work. He rested, Shabbat. Literally, God “ceased and desisted” from the activity of creating unto the activity of stopping; resting. As well though, here at the outset of Scripture a rhythm of rest is inaugurated by God. Sabbath was not man-made. Soccer tournaments and newspapers pregnant with sale ads and four hour Super Bowl pregame shows…these were all man-made, and frankly only work to upset a rhythm Divinely inspired. This is not to suggest that Sunday become your Sabbath or mine. The rhythm is not marked by named days. It is simply notable that it keeps a meter of 7’s: One out of every seven is set aside, blessed and made holy. One out of every seven days. One out of every seven months. One out of every seven years. Maybe? Certainly though, from the very beginning it is clear, God knew precisely what humankind would need to disrupt the six-day-a-week busy-ness that is slow and barely noticeable at first, yet often enough at last consumes life. He knew we would need to cease and desist; to stop and rest and reflect and find joy in a time and space especially set aside, blessed and made holy by God himself.
And all this He knew the Weeda family needed even more than a vacation in the strict sense of the word. God knew we needed to stop and rest; to establish a rhythm in our days that generates reflection and cultivates joy. But He also knew what would ground this rhythm. He knew what we would reflect upon and what would spring forth in great joy. He knew we needed to remember our relational proximity to Him, as well as remember all He has done for us in Christ Jesus.
Vacation is a loaded word. For starters, vacation is lightly loaded with hopes and dreams. The reality of vacation several months out gets us imagining the possibilities. Disneyland? Hawaii? An Alaskan cruise…or a Mediterranean cruise? “Oh Hun, do you think we can?” Vacation floats around our minds with ideals that may or may not come to be.
Later, however, vacation takes on more weight. It becomes more heavily loaded with plans. Saving money, checking websites, reading reviews, comparing rates, making phone calls, choosing dates and times, mapping routes. The ideals from months prior tend to fade into realities. Vacation comes down to earth a bit. Now you can grasp it and soon decisions are made, reservations are nailed down and enthusiasm begins to mount.
At last vacation bears the bulk laden load of preparing. Retrieve the luggage, do the laundry, empty the fridge of dairy products, recruit a neighbor for watering the garden, do more laundry, arrange to amuse the kids while driving, one final load of laundry, stack the van to the brim, grab coats just in case, potty breaks all around, turn off the lights in the kids’ bedrooms, close the garage door and hit the road. Finally, real and actual vacation; launch rest and relaxation, the proverbial “R&R.”
Well all that was our plan up until a few weeks ago. See, on the back side of all that loads down the idea of vacation is yet a greater parcel: the expectation that is assumed with taking one. Try turning to someone today and tell them you are taking a vacation, and wait for the question to come back… Generally an excited: “Where are you going?” An obvious question to be sure, after all the root of the word assumes some level of vacating: “We’re leaving. Checking out for a week by the lake or in the mountains or at the resort.” The Weeda Family’s expectation was to skip town for the Central Oregon Coast. Nice hotel with free breakfast, the aquarium, sunny days and sandy beaches. Top it off by visiting good friends and reminiscing around Portland a bit. Now that’s a vacation, planned and prepped. Certainly it could be more. But that’s all we really wanted and it fit nicely within the budget we had. However, though that is what we wanted, God knew what we needed.
Long story, short…we stayed home. While we had been whittling away the hours planning to vacate, wanting and expecting some well deserved “R&R,” God was holding his ground against all our wants and expectations with what He knew we needed. Where we pursued an escape; a space to turn to and run toward, God offered us time to stop and rest. Where we asked for the load of vacation, God gave us the lightened burden of Sabbath.
Sabbath comes from a clumsy sounding Hebrew word: Shabbat. The emphasis is hard on the last syllable. It’s tone is abrupt and halting. Shabbat. It sounds like a bump in the road; a pot hole with a sign next to it that says “SLOW” or “Motorcycles Use Caution.” I guess that makes it onomatopoeic – you know, a word that sounds like what it describes or is – because Sabbath is like that: A dip in life’s road with a sign next to it suggesting we slow way down or we will be wrecked.
Biblically, we are first introduced to Sabbath in Genesis 2…as a verb, not as a noun; as an action, or better as a posture, not as a place or thing, proper or otherwise. And it is right on the heels of creation’s story. Genesis 2:2-3 tells us “on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”
Now, certainly the first Sabbath did not take place because God was tired. He did not enter a time and space of Sabbath exhausted from the brightened blasts and careful craftsmanship of creating everything ex-nihilo, and so decided to escape for a breather on the bench. And frankly, neither should we. Later we’ll see a passage from Exodus 31 that indicates “[The LORD] rested and was refreshed.” The picture is not like that of an offensive lineman on the bench huffing and puffing and drinking Gatorade in front of those giant cold wind tunnel things as the ball is reversed on the field. Nor is the picture like that of an overworked executive escaping to a private tropical island to hide from his Smartphone for a week. The picture of the LORD being refreshed is that of reflection and glory and joy.
We stop on birthdays and anniversaries to look back at the previous year, to breathe deep the goodness of the year; the rich blessings, the movements of grace, the victories over trials, and we celebrate and cultivate joy for what is to come. Similarly, this first Sabbath was that of the LORD reflecting on the mighty work of His hands and all He had created, breathing deep the intrinsic goodness of it all, and taking glory and joy in what it would become. (Not one chapter later per se, but more likely, keeping all history in view, what it would become at the end of the story.) We do well to enter a time and space of Sabbath in like manner; reflecting on the days behind and finding joy unto the days ahead, rather than gasping for breath, having been run ragged by the week’s demands. If the latter sounds like what you have known, you need to catch on to the rhythm being set forth here at the outset of Scripture.
To be sure, the reader is left with the solemn and repeated reminder that God did not work. He rested, Shabbat. Literally, God “ceased and desisted” from the activity of creating unto the activity of stopping; resting. As well though, here at the outset of Scripture a rhythm of rest is inaugurated by God. Sabbath was not man-made. Soccer tournaments and newspapers pregnant with sale ads and four hour Super Bowl pregame shows…these were all man-made, and frankly only work to upset a rhythm Divinely inspired. This is not to suggest that Sunday become your Sabbath or mine. The rhythm is not marked by named days. It is simply notable that it keeps a meter of 7’s: One out of every seven is set aside, blessed and made holy. One out of every seven days. One out of every seven months. One out of every seven years. Maybe? Certainly though, from the very beginning it is clear, God knew precisely what humankind would need to disrupt the six-day-a-week busy-ness that is slow and barely noticeable at first, yet often enough at last consumes life. He knew we would need to cease and desist; to stop and rest and reflect and find joy in a time and space especially set aside, blessed and made holy by God himself.
And all this He knew the Weeda family needed even more than a vacation in the strict sense of the word. God knew we needed to stop and rest; to establish a rhythm in our days that generates reflection and cultivates joy. But He also knew what would ground this rhythm. He knew what we would reflect upon and what would spring forth in great joy. He knew we needed to remember our relational proximity to Him, as well as remember all He has done for us in Christ Jesus.
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