Escape

“Vacation

All I ever wanted

Vacation

Had to get away”

- The Go-Go’s

---

I was having a conversation with a wise, mature, and Kingdom-minded leader. I’ve known him for about five years and really gotten to know him through working with him and his company over the last couple.

He was talking about turning 60 and what he was feeling about this next season of his life.  He was contrasting what most of the people he knew were doing at his age with what he desired to do. They were planning increasing amounts of vacations to increasingly exotic places.

He isn’t. Nor will he be.

Don’t get me wrong, this guy likes vacations and has been all over the world. But he is so invigorated by his life and his company’s clear and intended future, that he would rather work on and invest in that than hang out almost anywhere else.

After my last meeting with him, our Client Experience Coordinator and I were discussing the conversation I had with this leader. She noted something really inspired:

Vacations are becoming more about escapism.

If the world has gone mad...

If you are finding life unfulfilling…

If there appears to be no purpose to your life...

If life feels more like chaos than calm...

If you feel disconnected from others...

You better get away.

But getting away shouldn’t be an escape to something you can only find away from your day-to-day life. It better be something that reminds you of the life that is intended every day. A life that is available, prepared in advance for you, and sacrificed for at a great price. A life that is part of your spiritual heritage.

We will face trials and the ways that we sin doesn’t make matters any easier, but we were created for something far grander. We should be high-fiving those around us with the realized glory available in every day. We should be feasting on the miraculous and invigorated by the life we have been invited into and are so privileged to live.

Our family has been incredibly privileged to spend 2-3 weeks in Colorado each of the last 4 summers. My wife and I have gotten away a couple of times as well.  

I find that…

I am no longer escaping my day-to-day life, 

but recharging in order to drive more fully back into it.

I am stepping away to gain perspective, to seek God’s deeper understanding and insight.  

I am filling my mind with fresh ideas, 

my lungs with clearer air, 

and my heart full of greater hope.

I don’t think the question is whether or not a person wants a vacation. Of course they do. The real question is why they want one.

Consider

• Do you want to get away?
• Why?
• While on vacation, are you excitedly anticipating returning back to your everyday life, or are you counting down the remaining days like a death march?
• What needs to change in your day-to-day life where you don’t feel the need to escape?