Going on vacation?

When you go on vacation, real vacation, not visiting people, but going away for some R and R, what do you take with you?  I always take books, a bag of books, because on vacation, most chores have been left behind and I have the time and quiet to read.  And I love to take books that I can learn from – even if it just that the book might take place in a different country, or culture, or conditions that I am not personally familiar with.  I get lost in the pages of a book, traveling to far off places, so far off that I have often said that while I am reading, the walls could fall down around me and I would not even notice.  Funny how we do that, make time to read books for entertainment and enlightenment, and we will spend hours lost in someone else’s words.  At least I do.

So, back to yesterday and the thoughts about accessing the presence of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, I need that same kind of quiet, that same kind of commitment to the pages that will take me out of this world…only here it is the pages of God’s Word. Oh, and the faith to believe that the words on a page in my Bible were laid in there by God for me – and for you.

I think real peace is only accessible when we give it time.  That’s why there is such an emphasis on spending time with God and thinking on His Word.  I just did a quick search on words like meditate, think on, bring to mind or medicate on or before.  Wow!!!  Eight synonyms came up and they were used nearly 300 times.

The passage in Philippians 4:8 comes to mind: Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just,…pure…lovely…of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.  In ! Timothy 4, Paul gives many words of wisdom and counsel to the young believer and he ends that passage with this admonition in verse 15: Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all.  Check out Psalm 119 for the use of the word…and maybe you might want to do a study like I did.

The point is this: God wants us to be filled with joy – check out Philippians.  He wants us to overflow with a peace that can hardly be understood.  I think He wants us to laugh out loud, and I think we would do a lot more laughing with pure joy if we thought about Who He is, who we are, and how much He loves us – actively.

From a purely secular perspective, imagine the absurdity of the King abandoning his fine raiment and position to step into your place of punishment – my place.  We are nothing apart from Him.  Wouldn’t we rejoice, especially if we had been delivered from a death sentence?  But we have!  And then this fine King, who redeemed us, reminded us that He would never leave us nor forsake us (Heb 13:5)

So, our issue is that we get so busy, even doing good things, that we forget these most beautiful truths. We allow our circumstances to control us, the temptations to rehearse someone else’s circumstances that may look better than our own.

In truth, as God’s children, we were made to rejoice.  We were blessed beyond measure, like a cup splashing the sink full under the rushing spigot.  It is all there, and all the time, if we would turn all the distractions off and devour His Word with the same appetite that we devour the words of others when we are on vacation.

PS. I am relearning this as I learn retirement.  I am experiencing for the first time in a while such an appetite for God’s Word, right now devouring them through The Message and my old KJV.  And being amazed at God's kindness!!!