A Theology of Summer Vacations

00:00:00.000 | Yesterday, we talked about modesty and bikinis, no small topic.

00:00:09.840 | And today we talk about summer vacations in general.

00:00:13.120 | The summer vacation season has begun in the United States and a listener named

00:00:16.800 | Ryan writes in to ask this, Pastor John.

00:00:18.600 | I'm wondering if you could discuss the theology of vacations.

00:00:22.040 | You often talk about not wasting your life or any moment or season in it.

00:00:26.840 | Intellectually, I agree, but at times it just seems like I need to rest.

00:00:30.880 | Where do vacations fit?

00:00:32.480 | Well, you do need a rest and the Bible provides some pretty significant

00:00:39.920 | foundations for rest and I think indirectly for vacations.

00:00:46.160 | And so let me just mention a few of those foundations that I

00:00:49.120 | think give us some guidance.

00:00:51.040 | Number one, God created us in need of daily sleep.

00:00:57.480 | I have always found that quite frustrating.

00:01:00.280 | I hate sleep.

00:01:02.560 | I find sleep boring.

00:01:04.640 | So why did he make me like a helpless baby that must go unconscious one third of my life?

00:01:16.400 | I mean, just think of it.

00:01:18.360 | What is the message in that?

00:01:21.000 | There's got to be a message in that.

00:01:23.160 | And Psalm 127 says, "It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest,

00:01:30.440 | eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved," some

00:01:35.960 | translations say, "in his sleep some sleep."

00:01:39.600 | I think the gist in the context is pretty much the same.

00:01:43.400 | According to this text, sleep is a gift from God and the gift is often

00:01:49.200 | spurned by anxious toil.

00:01:51.960 | Peaceful sleep is the opposite of anxiety.

00:01:55.960 | God does not want his children to be anxious, but to trust him.

00:01:59.600 | So I conclude that God made sleep as a continual reminder that we should not be

00:02:08.680 | anxious, but should rest in him like a little baby.

00:02:13.200 | Unless you turn to become like a child, you can't even enter the kingdom.

00:02:16.720 | He created sleep to make sure we would have a daily reminder.

00:02:22.160 | We are not God.

00:02:24.480 | Our work is not decisive in running the world.

00:02:29.760 | God's work is decisive.

00:02:33.200 | "He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep," Psalm 121.

00:02:40.400 | So we sleep.

00:02:42.320 | God never sleeps.

00:02:44.000 | So sleep is foundational.

00:02:46.120 | It's a pointer.

00:02:47.080 | And I think the big picture there we take away is don't get a big head about your

00:02:54.320 | work that you think you can run the world or make everything happen.

00:02:58.720 | You're like a little baby, a third of your life, and God meant to tell you

00:03:01.800 | something. Number two, God established a Sabbath principle.

00:03:07.320 | However you relate the Old Testament law to the present, the Sabbath remains a

00:03:13.200 | gift with wisdom in it.

00:03:16.320 | I remember reading C.S.

00:03:18.320 | Lewis's wife's book on the Ten Commandments and seeing her point out the

00:03:25.000 | wonder and the glory and the incredible gift of telling an ancient agricultural

00:03:31.920 | people whose lives depended on working the land, "Not only don't you have to go

00:03:38.280 | to work today, you may not go to work today.

00:03:41.320 | Mandatory weekly vacation."

00:03:43.560 | And it was stunning.

00:03:44.800 | I mean, I just had never seen it in that light.

00:03:47.200 | And she said, "That is exactly the way it would have landed on people, at least at

00:03:52.800 | the beginning.

00:03:53.760 | You may not work seven days a week.

00:03:56.600 | I won't let you.

00:03:57.640 | You must."

00:03:59.680 | And then he consecrated it to himself as a sign of his own creative power and

00:04:07.280 | holiness.

00:04:08.560 | But the underlying issue of its gift nature to a worn out, finite, tired

00:04:18.520 | agricultural people remains.

00:04:21.800 | And so I say the rhythm of work six, rest one, work six, rest one, work six, rest

00:04:27.120 | one would probably spare a lot of heart attacks and give longevity to many lives

00:04:35.360 | prematurely taken because they never unwind the spring.

00:04:39.760 | They're always working.

00:04:41.600 | They're working at home and they're working at work and they're working in

00:04:45.400 | their play and they can't stop working.

00:04:47.880 | And I don't think that's what one in seven means.

00:04:51.320 | This spring that we live by, especially for some of us, it needs to be unwound,

00:04:56.840 | not just two weeks a year, but one day a week.

00:05:01.440 | Here's number three, third foundational idea to point towards rest and vacation.

00:05:07.680 | Work is good and it's not a curse, but it is redeemed.

00:05:13.520 | So we must work the works of him while it is day.

00:05:18.360 | Jesus called for work and we ought to work.

00:05:22.360 | And Paul said, if anyone's not willing to work, let him not eat.

00:05:26.120 | And I love this verse in first Corinthians 15, be steadfast, immovable, always

00:05:30.360 | abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.

00:05:36.080 | That means be doing a lot of it, abounding in the work of the Lord.

00:05:40.120 | And Paul said, don't be weary in doing good.

00:05:43.120 | So, so here's the rub.

00:05:45.360 | How do you not grow weary?

00:05:47.960 | I mean, he says, don't grow weary in doing good, but we get physically depleted.

00:05:54.240 | We get mentally depleted, which raises then the question of vacations.

00:05:58.280 | And here's the last thing I would say.

00:06:00.200 | God, here's the fourth foundational thing.

00:06:03.440 | God's son took special times to rest from labor.

00:06:07.760 | Mark 6 31.

00:06:09.280 | He said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.

00:06:16.000 | It's interesting that he said that right after these brothers buried the chopped off

00:06:22.840 | head of John the Baptist, which meant probably not only did you risk your lives to go get

00:06:29.640 | that head or the body, at least, I don't know which they buried.

00:06:33.560 | They got his body, they buried it.

00:06:35.520 | You risked your lives.

00:06:36.480 | This has been a high stress time for you.

00:06:39.920 | So come away and rest a while.

00:06:43.480 | So my summary would be, it seems that the issue of vacations becomes a matter of wisdom.

00:06:52.040 | We should try to know ourselves, know our families.

00:06:55.680 | Seems to me that in this fallen age where the focus is on redemption, the final rest

00:07:04.440 | that we are promised is only tasted incrementally and as a means of more productive

00:07:12.600 | labor in this redemptive age.

00:07:15.000 | Play and recreation in this age is not the main way we glorify God.

00:07:21.520 | It's secondary, I think, and it's a means of refreshing us and inspiring us for

00:07:27.760 | productive labor.

00:07:29.040 | We work to advance God's saving kingdom in a fallen world.

00:07:34.880 | And that's true whether we're in secular work or so-called Christian work.

00:07:40.520 | Vacations and Sabbaths and days off and nights of sleep are recreations of creative,

00:07:47.960 | happy, fruitful labor for the advancement of Christ's kingdom in the world, whether

00:07:53.520 | you're in a secular work or not.

00:07:56.160 | And of course, there is no clear line.

00:08:00.760 | I feel this especially for many of us between vocation and recreation.

00:08:07.240 | Many of us so love what we do and find so much pleasure in it and are so energized by

00:08:15.960 | it that the concept of taking time for recreation for the sake of creation is not so

00:08:23.240 | clear. For those folks, we need to make sure that we know not only ourselves, but we

00:08:31.200 | need to know those around us, because our wives may not feel the same and our kids may

00:08:36.400 | need us when we're just super energized by our reading or our study.

00:08:40.960 | And that's not what they need at this time.

00:08:43.200 | And vacations account for that as well as for us.

00:08:47.200 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:08:49.360 | That's a good word on vacations and rest.

00:08:51.960 | And we will return tomorrow.

00:08:54.040 | Actually, I'll return tomorrow with a weekend conversation.

00:08:56.360 | We're gonna be talking with someone who has been studying Bible design for several

00:09:00.040 | decades, and we're going to talk about a little history of Bible clutter.

00:09:03.920 | How did our Bibles become such technical books with so many notes and symbols in it?

00:09:08.000 | It's an interesting story, and it has led to a Bible format that has particular

00:09:12.680 | ramifications on how we read and engage the text itself.

00:09:16.080 | We're going to look at Bible clutter tomorrow.

00:09:17.960 | And for more about this podcast, find us online at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:09:24.640 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke.

00:09:25.560 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.

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A Theology of Summer Vacations

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