Hooray! It’s summer!
At least, that’s how we used to feel when we were kids. Has the feeling diminished in you, been squeezed out by a wild overgrowth of job responsibilities, concerns about caring for the kids with school out, and drying up of any funds for vacation travel? If you do have something marked “vacation” on the calendar, will you still be living with cell phone, blackberry, laptop at hand, just in case work needs you…or the boss expects that project to get finished?
Yikes! What’s happened to us?
In case you’re wondering, ministers need breaks as much as anyone else. I recently discovered a website named “PoopedPastors.com.” And yes, I have some vacation set for my summer. And how great it is that at BPC we have so many folks capable of leading worship and preaching sermons in my absence!
Scripturally speaking, taking a holy break isn’t optional. Check out commandment #4 of 10, about keeping the Sabbath. And the psalmist reverences his Shepherd-God who leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul (Psalm 23).
Are we really so important that we have no time to allow God to refresh us? Who’s in charge here, anyhow?
Please, please, whether you are overworked, under-or-unemployed, a stressed-out parent, or retiree needing a change of scene (which doesn’t have to be very far from home)—take a holy break this summer. You, me, and our depleted planet, need it!
Presbyterian Church in Burlington 