On Vacation

This is a time of year when many people are on vacation, visiting family or friends, enjoying the beauty of nature, or recharging before heading back to school. A sign outside a church during one holiday season said, “Did you take your Bible on vacation, or are you on vacation from your Bible?” It is easy to get caught up in the busyness of life and allow the most important things to be squeezed out.

David didn’t contemplate missing a day of prayer.

He didn’t take time off from his spiritual life because his faith in God was his life. One thing Satan has masterfully accomplished over the last six thousand years is the invention of distractions to keep us from prayer and reading and studying the Bible. Interestingly, people are actually working less and sleeping more today than they were fifty years ago. But the proliferation of mobile phones, high-speed internet access, streaming movies, video games, and so much more means that people have never been so distracted. Downtime often isn’t downtime. Life is demanding.

If you have to cut something, the last place you should cut is your devotional life. It is worth squeezing some other area of life to make sure you have time to connect with God every day. Jesus said in John 15:5, “Without Me you can do nothing.” A branch or stem connected to a vine can be healthy and thriving, but after it is severed from the vine, it takes no time at all to wither and dry out.

Disconnected from Jesus, we do the same.

Vacations are good for the body and soul.

But time off should never be time off from Jesus.

If we’re careful to bless God “every day” as David did, we will surely praise His name “forever and ever.”