Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.
This is the last blog before the summer break, and it seemed appropriate to ask, what difference does following Jesus make to our attitude to holidays?
First and foremost, a holiday is not a holiday from being a Christian, or from living to please Jesus. We don’t stop reading our Bibles, or seeking God in prayer. It’s not a time to dip out of church, if we can find one nearby. We are still His, 24/7.
Rather, a holiday is a positive opportunity. Here are 3 Rs I have in mind:
Rest: we have the weekly sabbath, but there is also value in a longer rest. In the passage above, Jesus takes His disciples away for a quiet break. (Read on in Mark and you’ll see that they didn’t quite succeed!)
The great Victorian preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon commended this. In a lecture to his students, ministers-in-training, he speaks about how important it is to get a break from time to time from the intensity of gospel work. He who forgets the humming of the bees among the heather, the cooing of the wood-pigeons in the forest, the song of birds in the woods, the rippling of rills among the rushes, and the sighing of the wind among the pines, need not wonder if his heart forgets to sing and his soul grows heavy.
We may find that rest in different ways: in my case, with some walks in the hills are tops. Even just a change of scene will do us good.
Reading: when I was a student, our dear friend the late Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith showed us a box of books he’d take when, each August, he would head to Cornwall. Good books will really build our faith. I find the easiest to read when tired are Christian biographies. How about this, rather than a forgettable novel?
Reset: I find the summer holiday also a chance for a bit of a spiritual reset, thinking about life and goals for the year ahead. I’ve found serving on camp or at Keswick Convention a particular help in this way.
The world around us makes holidays the goal of their work; the Christian takes a holiday so that we may work and serve Jesus better, knowing that the ultimate rest still lies ahead.
