Vacating or Re-Creating?

Last week before I felt the need to join the blogging support for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, I entered a dialogue with Brad Hightower about a biblical understanding of vacation.  Brad wondered whether our culture’s high view of vacations didn’t really amount to a deep misunderstanding of the nature of our work.  I understood that Brad argued that vacations have become a sort of idol that takes us away from our true spiritual calling and instead are another form of self-indulgence that leads to even less peace and more stress. 

And in most ways that matter, I agree with him.  I really do believe that the way people spend their leisure time says something about the state of their hearts.  Observing what I “have” to do is not nearly as revealing as what I “choose” to do. And many people choose deeply destructive or at best wasteful amusements in their “free time.”  Bill Cosby once did a comedy sketch about people who work all week only to get trashed on the weekend.  When they are asked about it, their response is “I deserve it.”

But biblically, we have a different model woven into the creation accounts that is inextricable with our understanding of “sabbath”.  Sabbath is not primarily about rest, it is about communion and reflection.  When God “rests” in the first Sabbath (Genesis 2:1-3) it’s not because he is tired or needs to “get away from it all” (he just created a perfect place for a vacation!), but instead he simply stops working and enjoys what he has made.  Indeed, one of my favorite images is from Genesis 3:8 when God is walking in the garden in the evening.  (Can’t you just picture God strolling down a trail through the trees in flip-flops with a cold one in his hand?)

It is this understanding of Sabbath as communion that leads us to re-cast our leisure time from a “vacating” as Brad called it, to a time of recreation—re-creation.  I want to encourage Christians to have far more restful, peaceful, relational, educational, experiential, and dare I say, spiritual vacations by re-connecting them to creation.  I have become deeply aware of how truly stressed out and disconnected from the Earth, our own souls and each other we become through the hurly burly of every day life.

This is why I have been critical of media as escape, video games as leisure, and amusement parks or Las Vegas excursions as the sole focus of our vacation time.  That is not to say that a day at Disneyland is somehow “unchristian.”  (I actually like roller coasters a lot.) I just want to challenge Christian families to reconsider their next trip to a resort where they will sit by a pool with a waterslide and spend too much on umbrella drinks when they could be snorkeling in a reef, hiking to a waterfall or looking for wildlife in a national park.  I have also challenged Christian families to use their vacation time for mission trips, cross-cultural excursions or opportunities to see and reflect on more of the world.

I really believe that the more we “recreate” by “re-connecting” with “creation” the more our worldviews and our souls will be centered on what truly restores.

Comments

[brad]

Tod,
I think you have stated my position fairly. I really think this topic is important in the American church. I would like to make one little challenge to your perspective of Sabbath. How did Jesus spend the Sabbath? One answer is in all the healing stories. He did good. So a great way to get peace and rest is to "Do unto others". The rest is from self-centeredness and into otherliness. Under the New Covenant, we can enter this Sabbath of deliverance from self-centeredness every day. In fact, we ought to strive to enter into this rest.

I believe your model for leisure time is still really a therapeutic model. My soul finds rest not in leisure or recovery time but in taking His yoke and learning a new way of living day by day that is based entirely on "doing the will of God" and being of service to others. Jesus said just this in John 4 when He said my food is to do the will of the Father. Jesus was replenished and nourished by doing good and ministering to others. If this doesn't bring us rest then we are still doing it out of some self seeking pride or self-centered fear.

I am challenging your readers to possible re-evaluate the foundation upon we really live. If our daily life produces stress this is a serious spiritual problem. The answer is in learning a new foundation to build upon in seeking to walk in the spiritual principles of Jesus.

thanks for the dialogue,
brad

[the Foolish Sage]

I'm enjoying this dialogue. A couple of points:

1) Brad: Did you miss that Tod said that the Sabbath wasn't so much about rest as it was about communion and reflection (i.e., worship?). While I agree with you that it is good to do good works on a sabbath/vacation/re-creation [whatever], is that necessarily the only thing we can/should do? Your point is well-taken that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, but can you show that he did that every Sabbath? We also read of him taking time away from his ministry to be alone with the Father.

I see Tod's plea that we use some of our vacation time to enjoy God's creation as very fitting with this. Done rightly, appreciating the creation is worship, and thus a fitting sabbath activity. T. D. Moore's Book Consider the Lilies makes the point of how much we have lost by undervaluing the general ("natural") revelation.

2) Tod: A minor addition...I think God's seventh day rest included, but was more than, enjoyment of his work. One of the major contexts of Genesis 1-3 is rulership: who's in charge of what? (cf. M. G. Kline). A king rested on his throne when he was in complete control of his realm and all his enemies were subdued. Thus God's seventh day rest is a picture of his sovereign rule. I think there is a parallel in our sabbath rest: in Christ, and as joint heirs of the Father with him, we have become kings who join him in subduing the enemy. Our ability to rest (i.e., worship) is a reflection that, though the Kingdom is not yet consumated, it has begun, and our victory is assured.

[brad]

Mr. Foolish Sage,
My point is that Sabbath is actually acheived through the Lordship of Jesus and a vacating of worldiness which I am defining as the self-centered life. In other words, all of life is a vacating and a worship. We must take a more practical look at what Tod is saying. The meta-message here is "pastors go kayaking a lot". My approach to life is quite different and actually more stress-free. Leaders lead by showing that a life that is free of all self-centered fears and concerns is a pure sabbath. Such purity empowers us to see God in all of life and to live in the kingdom one day at a time. Reflection is a daily process of our daily cycle. Was there any time today that I acted selfishly? Has my relationship with God and others improved today? Did I miss any opportunities to show God's glory? Where did God use me to show His love today? The path to peace and reflection doesn't require any movement or travel. The need to move and travel to find reflection is a bit of a problem.

[Tod]

ooh. Just went I thought this discussion was getting swept away by Hurricane Katrina....

"We must take a more practical look at what Tod is saying. The meta-message here is "pastors go kayaking a lot".

Oh, how I wish it were so...More tomorrow.

Tod

[brad]

Oooh ... Did I forget the "love and kisses - brad" part? Have you ever heard the phrase, "breaking out in spots". It means that we feel a need to go somewhere else to find sabbath. It is a great little saying as it connects the need to travel to find sabbath with the dis-ease of soul.

Anyway, my suggestion is still that true sabbath is about turning from self-centered endevours. The new covenant (because the gospel primarily gives us the power of sensible awareness of God) gives us the power to be delivered from the character defects of self-centeredness that are the real source of our lack of shalom.