We all have our own definition of what makes a good vacation. For some of us, we look forward to peace and quiet, a time to recharge and relax from a life of bustle and grind, sitting on a beach and reading a good book. For others, we look for adventure and thrill, perhaps ziplining, wilderness hiking, or mountain climbing. Still, others look for ways to pursue their passions like writing a book, traveling the globe, or learning a new hobby.
To each his own, right? But one thing vacations have in common is that they are a break from the norm to do what we really want to do when we don’t have the time or resources to do those things all the time. Vacations can spotlight our passions and give us a glimpse of what motivates our hearts.
And vacations are, by nature, a temporary respite. When they are done, we return to the routines of life that make up our day-to-day existence. We treasure these respites and plan for them often to help recharge and renew ourselves.
I wonder if the love and need for vacations sometimes unconsciously makes its way into our service to God. Perhaps, we feel from time to time that we need a break from watching and waiting on the Lord. Or perhaps we think we need those “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” moments. Do we look for those times where we can drop our guard just a little, let our hair down, and have a little fun?
Do we sometimes think that we need a vacation from God?
This is an interesting question to think about before we give a quick answer, whether “yes” or “no.” For some, a life of following Jesus is full of tremendous sacrifices that intersect with our health and livelihood. If this is us, perhaps we long for a “vacation” from the sacrifices we must make daily just to gain respite for a moment before we go back to the daily service to our Lord and King.
Most would understand this desire for respite, for a “vacation” as we use this word.
For others, perhaps we have one eye on the Kingdom and another eye on the world. We look with anticipation for the reward that King Jesus will bring, but we still look longingly at the pleasure of sin that we gave up or the sins that call to us through our friends and acquaintances. If this is the “vacation” from God that we are contemplating, then we need to beware of this enticement.
Listen to the words of Jesus when He tells the parable of the servant who decided to take a vacation from his duty while the Master was away:
“But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards,
the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites.
In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 24:48-51 ESV).
The danger in “vacation thinking” when it comes to serving the Lord is a dangerous thing to engage in. It presupposes three things that can cause us to stumble in our walk with the Lord.
First, it shines a light on our evil motives. If we look for a chance to take a break from living a life that the Lord wants us to live, it exposes our desires to be doing something that the Lord forbids us to do. This goes right to the motives of the heart.
Second, it exposes our incomplete understanding of servanthood. Being a servant is a life-long endeavor, not something we do like an employee who punches a time clock and is on his own time when not “on the clock.” When we are servants of King Jesus, there is never a time we are not on the clock for Him.
Third, it demonstrates that we still haven’t learned what true joy we have in a life fully devoted to Jesus. When we are all-in for Him, then we need not go elsewhere for what we think the pleasures of sin for a season will bring to us. There is no need for a vacation from serving King Jesus because it is in Him that we will find contentment, refreshment, and renewal each day.
And yet, perhaps we all yearn for the respites that come with sacrifice. We pray for an easing of the physical pain that assaults our health or the health of a loved one that is brought about specifically because of our decision to follow King Jesus. Or perhaps we pray for ease from the pain brought about when our families are broken because we made the choice to follow Jesus.
Sometimes, it is okay to desire a respite, or vacation, from the consequences of our decision to serve King Jesus. But this is not the same thing that Jesus talks about with the wicked servant who took a vacation from serving the master while the master was away.
We are followers of Jesus 24/7. There is never a time that we take a vacation from serving. That’s why Jesus gave many admonitions like this, an admonition that we need to remember when we are tempted to take a vacation from serving the Lord:
“Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.
Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Matthew 24:42-44 ESV).
When we look at pictures from the James Webb Space Telescope, it’s easy to see how we can get a Ph.D. in astrophysics.
When we see bacteria through an electron microscope, we understand how we can get a Ph.D. in microbiology.
When we study the depths of the seas, there is enough material to get a Ph.D. in oceanography.
When we study how the complex body operates at the cellular level, we can get our Ph.D. in biochemistry.
In all these disciplines, we see evidence of God in His complex yet wonderfully knitted together creation.
We can spend a lifetime studying any detail of God’s creation and hardly scratch the surface of what He has spoken into existence.
The more intelligent we become, the more we learn that with God, indeed, the half hasn’t been told.
I’m not convinced that the Lord is expecting grand actions on our part to be considered His faithful steward.
More often than not, He’s expecting us to say something that may only help one person on their walk with Him, rather than something that moves the masses.
Our legacy in His eyes is just as powerful when we help a handful of nameless people than when we leave behind an army of followers who will remember our name.
“And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” (Matthew 10:42 ESV).
Paul was a fantastic servant of Jesus, but listen to what he says here:
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” (Philippians 3:12 ESV).
When I read this, I can have one of two reactions.
First, I can think, “If Paul is struggling to be complete in Jesus, then I have no chance of being the servant I need to be in Jesus.” We think this because we realize that Paul is an amazing Christian that has done more than most of us will even be called to do.
Or
Second, I can think, “I praise God for showing me that if Paul is still striving to be complete, then I should show myself some grace for continuing to strive to be complete in Jesus.” Paul is an example that God does not expect perfection; He just expects us to move toward perfection.
I will never be perfect, but I can always move toward perfection with God’s grace. When I fall, I get back up and keep moving forward. God’s hand will always lift me up when I reach for it.
I leave God when I decide to quit getting up and moving forward; it is never that God leaves me.
Let’s never forget to keep pressing on, regardless of how many times we stumble and fall.
I wonder if we spend too much time looking for things that divide and not enough time looking for things that unite.
Something stunning and sad just hit me. I was reading Job, and God said this to Satan:
“And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.” (Job 1:12 ESV).
And
“And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.” (Job 2:6 ESV).
We readily believe that God is sovereign, and even Satan has to listen to Him when God sets boundaries. Think about that. Satan hates God, and he hates the children of God. Does anyone really believe that if he could do it, he’d kill Job when it became apparent that Job wouldn’t curse God and die as he predicted?
But Satan couldn’t harm Job beyond the boundaries God placed on him. So, why is this stunning and sad to me?
When God places boundaries on the most evil creature, the creature must obey.
But when God places boundaries on me, I can look at God and thumb my nose at Him and say, “No!”
When God says not to kill, I can kill.
When God said not to lie, I can lie.
When God says I need to be baptized, I can refuse.
When God says not to forsake the assembly of the saints, I can miss the church’s assembly anyway.
When God says to help those who are in need, I can keep what He has blessed me with to use for myself.
In short, when the sovereign Creator gives me boundaries, I can choose to stay within His boundaries or brazenly ignore His restrictions and commands.
Not even Satan can do that. And God has a special place reserved in judgment for this evil creature.
Shouldn’t we be careful about rebelling against God when even Satan must stay within the boundaries God imposes upon him?
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:41 ESV).
Jesus healed the blind, the deaf, and the mute.
Can you imagine what it must have been like for people who saw their parents for the first time?
Can you imagine what it must have been like for those who heard and understood what their children sounded like for the first time, having never learned the language before?
Can you imagine what it must have been like for those who spoke perfect Hebrew without having to attend any speech therapy sessions?
It must have been an overwhelming experience for these people. But think about what these events must have been like through the eyes of Jesus.
Our Lord created each of these people to have a perfect working body, yet sin broke His perfect creation and ushered in disease and death.
It must have pained Him to see a sea of humanity with broken bodies. But for a few He chose, He could experience the awe they felt when they saw for the first time, heard for the first time, spoke for the first time.
I wonder if He felt overwhelming joy as He experienced His creation made whole when He fixed their damaged bodies and brought people closer to the state they were meant to live.
I must admit that when Jesus gives me my perfect body, free of death and disease, I will probably feel overwhelmed as I realize I will no longer ache, suffer, or grow tired.
But I imagine that Jesus will feel more joy than the sea of people with new, perfect, spiritual bodies as He witnesses the awe we experience when we are given these bodies.
He will be the happy parent who lives vicariously through us as we receive the ultimate gift of a body prepared for eternity.
When Jesus healed the blind, the deaf, and the mute, it was a small foretaste of what awaits all who call upon His name.
And as overwhelming as it will be for us, I doubt we will ever be able to appreciate what the joy will be like for the One who restores to us what our existence was intended to be in His presence.
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” (Philippians 3:20-21 ESV).
I don’t think any of us will be prepared for the awe we’ll experience the first time we see Jesus sitting on His throne.
We have staked everything on this one fact:
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” (John 6:38 ESV).
Jesus was more than a prophet of God. He existed before He was born, in heaven as God.
He was the God of Israel.
He created the world.
He was the God of the Old Testament.
And He came down from heaven.
Jesus gives us no wiggle room.
We are either all-in, accepting Him as God,
Or we must reject Him as a blasphemer.
Most Jews today reject Him as an evil blasphemer.
He said that He came down from heaven.
If we believe that, we must be all-in for Him.
For if He did come down from heaven, then He is the One to whom we must submit,
The One whom we must believe,
The One whom we must worship,
The One whom we must have faith in.
Jesus cut off all other possibilities about Him.
He is either God, or He is an evil, blasphemous liar.
I confess Him as my Lord and God.
What about you?
You remember Lazarus, right? Jesus raised him from the dead.
From Luke 16, we know that when we die, we are carried to Abraham’s bosom by angels.
Lazarus made that trip with angels before the Lord raised him from the dead.
I bet he had a unique sense of excitement as he grew closer to the second time he died, knowing from experience that angels were waiting to carry him away again.
I can only imagine how awesome that will be.
The second time he made that trip, Lazarus didn’t have to imagine- he knew.
These are the things that comfort me.