Dear Church,
I’m writing to you from VACATION!
Just kidding, I would never write a midweek message on vacation. But I did have a moment to write something before I left the office, and I wanted to share a couple theological reflections about vacation. (And hopefully not brag about mine.)
There’s a way in which the closest some of us get to sabbath is vacation. I hope each of us is able to build some time for rest, renewal, joy, and human connection into our weeks, but I know that’s not workable for everybody. Maybe you’re a caregiver to an aging parent, and so sabbath has to arrive in other ways. Maybe you’re working multiple jobs and juggling childcare with all the other demands of contemporary life. But I’ve heard many folks from the congregation talk about vacation and I hope you are among those who can afford to take some.
First, for those of us who work jobs, I know that US white middle class culture can be pervasively (and even perversely!) focused on what we do for a living. Vacation can be an opportunity to remember who we are outside the rhythm of our professional life, outside the bounds of our office responsibilities, outside the emotional and physical grind of job demands. Who were you before you worried about a paycheck? Who will you be after you stop?
Second, vacation creates a deeper opportunity for us to be embodied. Maybe you feel safer to dress more comfortably (whatever that means for you) when you’re in another town- that is true for a lot of queer folks, and others, and has been for a long time. Maybe you feel the expansiveness of time: to be playful with your children or your partner or your parents, to try out new ways of being with them and with yourself. Maybe you get to travel someplace beautiful or astonishing, and that can help you remember the belovedness you carry in your own body.
Third, I hope your vacation puts you in unexpected places. Eating food you haven’t tried before, maybe, or talking to a friend you haven’t seen in years, or reading a book you found in the seatback pocket or just seeing what your dreams are like when you’re finally getting enough sleep for a few days in a row. I sometimes think of the Spirit as someone who’s just hanging around, everywhere, waiting for us to look up from routine and convention and see what flag she’s waving at us. Getting out of one’s comfort zone, I think inevitably, makes room for hearing what the Spirit is up to.
So I hope you get some vacation soon. And if you can’t get vacation, lemme know and I’ll see what pressure the church can put on your employer to help. Maybe it won’t work, but all God’s children deserve some time off to see what vacation brings them!
Take care,
Davi
