This half-term, my wife, Kirsten, and I (with our son Joshua happily in tow) were able to enjoy a fantastic break in Brittany with some good friends. Brittany is a lovely part of France, and we were with great company, enjoying great food and great weather. We had a fantastic time.
As you have probably gathered, I love holidays. I really love holidays. What is there not to love? There’s no work (well, not the vocational type, anyway), and there’s plenty of rest and play. Kirsten can read all day in the sun while I pootle,1 play and bundle Joshua ’til we’re all tired out from laughing and giggling. The normal pattern of life ceases and a new pattern—the holiday pattern—takes over.
Obviously, there are some things we continue to do on holiday that we do at home: we get up (albeit later than normal), brush our teeth, get dressed, eat, drink, and so on. These things are essential to day-to-day living, regardless of whether we are on holiday or not. It stands to reason, then, that spending time with God in his word and in prayer is naturally one of the essential parts of our day-to-day routine. Hmm…
I’m sure I’m not the only one who remembers to pack his Bible only when he is 500 miles from home. The war against sin has indeed been won by Christ on the cross, but our daily skirmishes with temptation and sin carry on nonetheless. Making sure I don’t take a ‘break’ from my time with the Lord when I go on holiday is one such skirmish I often lose.
This half-term, however, by God’s grace, I remembered to leave our Bibles in the car on the Sunday before we left. Erm… no, wait a minute, that’s not true; I actually forgot to take them out of the car—and I’m glad I didn’t! Not only were we able to enjoy fantastic sunshine, we also enjoyed the benefits of Jesus’ death on the cross and restored relationship with God by spending time with him each day. Our whole party was Christian, so we also enjoyed worshipping our great God together by reading a psalm and giving thanks in prayer on the Sunday.
Rest, typified in the Bible by the Sabbath, the one special day of rest out of every seven, is a gift from God (Exod 16:29-30). It’s for our benefit, and holidays are superb opportunities for such rest. But rest is not just physical; it is also spiritual. Work wearies us physically because it is cursed spiritually (Gen 3:17-19). Usually we only rest physically by enjoying time with friends and family. But it is also essential that we rest spiritually by spending time with our Father in heaven.
So as summertime approaches, I am taking to heart the lesson of this half-term and am buying a family ‘holiday’ Bible to keep in our suitcases. That way I can be sure that we will be able to rest fully and properly as God intended whenever we go on holiday.
