Monday, November 1:

Vacations have been around since the English gave the courts of the legal system a long, summer break. Today, many vacations coincide with particular holidays, and often point to recreation or tourism. Yet the term vacation can apply to relatively any departure from normal, day-to-day activities. In 1971, a McDonald’s advertisement included the jingle, “You deserve a break today. So get up and get away to McDonald’s.” For housewives yearning to escape the monotony of cooking daily meals, the not-so-healthy fast food became a possibility. Obviously, all vacations are not improvements on what we view as daily drudgery!



Most of my vacations involve mountains. For some reason, mountains speak to my soul differently than any other topography. While any of God’s creation has its own unique beauty, the sights, smells and sounds of a mountain landscape appeal to all of my senses at the same time. Each journey is at least somewhat of an escape from the daily grind. Yet the first days back always occur with reluctance, as the “civilized” world seems to get in the way, desiring to change the rhythms of focus on God.


For an example of how one godly man in the Bible viewed vacation, we can look at Uriah the Hittite, the husband of Bathsheba. Soon after King David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and impregnated her, the king devised a plan to bring his soldier Uriah home for a vacation, hoping Uriah would sleep with Bathsheba and would not discover her infidelity with the king.


8 And David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah departed from the king’s house, and a gift of food from the king followed him. 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 So when they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”
11 And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”
2 Samuel 11:8-11


Vacations are not meant to be escapes from duty. Confederate General Robert E. Lee once said,

“Duty then is the sublimest word in the English language. You should do your duty in all things. You can never do more. You should never wish to do less.”

Our duties as Christians are summed up in John 15, and those duties are threefold. First, we are to abide in Christ:


Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
John 15:4
Next, we are to love one another:


This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
John 15:12


Thirdly, we are to carry the witness of Jesus to an unbelieving world:


18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
John 15:18-20

God certainly has covered the bases in His assignments to us all, as we have a responsibility to Him first, then to ourselves, and finally, to the rest of the people we come in contact with on a daily basis. Notice that the relationship with God comes first, but many of us tend to focus on what we can see and touch physically. Instead of devoting the beginning of each day to God, we give Him the time that is left over, if any is. Most of us are great at taking care of our own needs, or at least trying to, though we often confuse the words “needs” and “desires.” Putting those two words together gives us “deeds,” and those deeds are for others, not self! We all know that it takes much patience and even more love to reach out to people who don’t love us, but that is exactly what Jesus did! He loved each of us before we ever dreamed of loving Him, and we are to follow His example.


Since coincidences do not exist, look for someone whom God puts in your path today and share the Lord’s love with them! Sharing God’s love can sometimes involve words, but more often will involve deeds, fulfilling at least a portion of their needs and desires. When confronted with undeserved love, most people will reflect upon that action. That love changed the lives of each Christian, and God can use us to change other lives, too!


Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,
1 Timothy 1:5