By Nate Adams

Summer can be a very busy time for churches, and therefore for many devoted church leaders and members. Vacation Bible School, camps, mission trips, construction projects, and more can quickly fill the warm-weather months.

But summer also provides most of us with a few days of vacation, or at least staycation. If we’re wise, those days can be just as important as the ones we spend in ministry.
All of us need breaks in our routines and the daily patterns of our lives. We are often creatures of habit, whether those habits are daily, weekly, or monthly.

For example, when I am teaching or preaching about worship on a Sunday morning, I sometimes ask the congregation, “How many of you are sitting in about the same place that you sit every Sunday?” Usually at least three-quarters of the room raises their hands, and then looks sheepishly at their familiar, nearby neighbors.

Then I ask, “How many of you parked in about the same place that you park every Sunday morning?” Again, most hands go up, and people quickly understand my point. Routine or ritual can become very poor substitutes for true, spiritual worship.

Likewise, the weekly or monthly patterns of our work, our down time, our relationships, and even our church commitments can too easily fall into almost thoughtless repetition. That’s why we need not only nights to pull away from our days, and sabbaths to pull away from our weeks, but also vacations to pull away from the sameness of our years.
Especially if your vacation is still ahead of you this year, let me encourage you to invest at least part of that time in three key “re’s”—refresh, reflect, and refocus.

Refresh. Giving yourself time to refresh physically is important, but so are spiritual and emotional refreshment. In addition to getting extra rest on your vacation, make some time for the replenishing things that really restore your soul. Take a long walk, or go fishing, or get alone with a great book. Have a long talk with your best friend. Take a drive to a solitary place and just decompress. You know better than anyone else what refreshes you. Make it happen!

Reflect. Once you’re starting to feel refreshed, take time to do some honest soul-searching. Are you happy with the pattern into which your life has settled? How do you feel about your job, your relationships, your life goals? Is your spiritual life healthy? Are you finding ways to serve and use your gifts? Does your life feel “on track,” and if not, what would it take to get back there? If you don’t have some serious time for reflection on your vacation, you are likely to return to the same habits and patterns from which you needed a break.

Refocus. And finally, allow your refreshed spirit and thoughtful reflection to lead you to a time of intentional refocus. When you return from vacation, how can you reorder your life to prioritize what’s truly important, and pull back from the things that are distracting you from your life’s true purposes? It’s sometimes hard to see changes that are needed when you are in the midst of your life’s routines. Let your vacation time show you what needs to be refocused.

When it comes to making your vacation time meaningful, “to re, or not to re, that is the question.” Just as a bad day can look much better after a good night’s rest, and a trying week can look much better once you reach the weekend, a vacation can provide a much-needed break to refresh, reflect, and refocus. May you find that time this summer.

Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Respond at IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org.