A Vacation with Meaning Or How To Rest Constructively

Summer is the time of long-awaited vacations. But how do we usually spend our vacation time, and holidays and weekends in general? More often than not we spend our day-off with family, and we get together with relatives and friends at the holiday dinner table to discuss current issues or just to have a chat. We also like to relax in front of a TV or kick back with a romance novel, mystery or a favorite science fiction.

All these activities are a waste of time, and as believers we can not afford it! If you count the number of days-off we have if we work from Monday to Friday, we will get 2 days x 52 weeks = 104 days-off per year! And that is not including the summer vacation, which is usually from 10 to 21 days (and sometimes even more than 30 days!), then add to that the civil holidays (we have many of them in the former USSR countries), which are also days off.

This way, if you do not plan your days-off and vacation time (i.e. spend them idly), it means that at least 4 months a year (1/3 of the year!) – one third of your life is wasted.

God gave us only one life to fulfill our calling, therefore, every moment of it should be directed at carrying out your destiny on earth. Every year – month, week, day, and hour – should draw us closer to the set goal. If our pastime does not draw us closer to the goal, then we are simply wasting our time, and burning away our only life!!!

Rest is one of the ways to satisfy oneself on the spiritual, mental, and physical levels. The prerequisite to satisfaction is a constructive and quality rest.

When on vacation, you are in charge of your own time. Therefore, this time is a special opportunity to do things you cannot do during working weeks because of regular work.

One can point out four quality levels of rest:

1. The lowest level of rest is the physical level. That is when we rest, or to be more exact, when don’t do anything. The purpose of such rest is often just to lie down, get a tan, have fun around, and indulge in idle chatter.

2. Rest on the mental level is a bit higher than the previous one. This one is all about allocating time for yourself: visit a museum, go sight-seeing, have a cultural and artistic experience, etc.

3. A Specialized, purposeful level of rest is inherent to people, who are moved by concrete goals, businessmen, for instance. Such people do not have any time to visit cultural and entertainment places, or at the very least they try to combine it with something constructive.

4. Level four is constructive rest. It is inherent to people, who set concrete goals and plans for the time of rest. For instance, to write a book during the vacation month, or complete an in depth study of a topic, read a planned amount of books, or listen to some sermons with relevant topics. In such a way, even being at the sea side (while reading useful books and listening to the sermons), these people will not only get closer to their goal, but also protect themselves from unnecessary temptations, as it is hard to entice away someone, who is busy.
Constructive rest is the level of highly organized and effective people, who know the price of life and value of time. Such people never allow anything or anyone to steal their time. They are not dependent on the stereotypes of the society. On the contrary, they dictate their principles to the society. This is the way Christians should be. Idleness must be overcome!

Now let us look at different kinds of rest.

1. When you rest by yourself
This is the most productive time for a purposeful rest. No one distracts you, and you can write books, read, study something. I, for example, take certain books to read, sermons, or write my own books. If your rest is not planned in advance, then you are most likely to get into different traps: like unnecessary connections, acquaintances, etc.

2. Rest with your family or friends
It is possible to rest with your family or friends, but at the same time to carry out plans you prepared in advance. Rest should always be scheduled: for example, 2-3 hours of communication with family is then changed to work on your goals. At the time of vacation communication with your close ones should be constructive, it should edify. That is real rest, because you can be really satisfied only when you are useful and helpful to others.

3. Communication with people you do not know
When you get into a circle of people you are not acquainted with, it is better to start your conversation with questions about common human values, about family, work, and place of living. It is important to give people the opportunity to have their say and find a point of contact, and then you can move on to more serious topics. The main value for each believer must be God. Therefore we should strive to lead every conversation to the main value – to God. We must seek and use all possible options to bring people to Christ.

4. Holidays and common entertainments
When you are invited to different entertainment events, for example, celebrations, birthdays, weddings, corporate events, etc., there also should be a certain task set and a conversation topic chosen. You should always pursue the set goal in every communication; change the subject of conversations to the topics of life goals, family values, calling, spiritual topics, and talk about needs of people. You also should remember that there are two kinds of effective communication with people: Either I am giving- being a blessing to someone, or I am receiving- I am learning new things. Based on this you should build your communication.

If you see that you can’t manage to give the right direction to a conversation, be brave enough not to visit such entertainments any more. Learn to say ‘no’. Value your time and life as a whole! If you can, converse only in case it brings you result.

What kind of rest can we call effective?

Japanese people have this tradition: every trip they take, every vacation should conclude in a deal. Constructive vacation should always conclude with a certain result. You should always return with fruit from a vacation; that can be the changed destinies of the people you preached to, personal changes thanks to the books you have read and sermons you have listened to, or even a written book, a developed program, a prepared plan for the future, etc. In order to carry this out you will need to plan out your vacation day by day. For instance, this summer, during your vacation, you can write the leadership school test.

Apart from that, vacation is an opportunity to meet God in different, unusual circumstances. (You must never take a rest from prayer or reading the Bible.) Vacation is an opportunity to grow spiritually faster than in your everyday life, because you are not in a hurry, you do not think about the things that need to be done urgently, you do not need to rush anywhere or make phone calls.

So let us summarize.

People of purpose and destiny will return from a vacation with fruits of time constructively spent.

1. Strengthened physically: because of doing sports and restoring their general health.
2. Strengthened mentally: because they were occupied with self-education and self-development, studied certain topics concerning personal growth.
3. Strengthened spiritually: because they read Christian books, listened to biblical, leadership schools, fasted at least once a week, went into prayer retreats and prayed more than usual.
4. They were blessed by the fellowship with the people close to them, discussing certain topics, drawing conclusions, and learning things.
5. They shared the Gospel through communication with new people.
6. They reached certain goals and drew closer to their calling: studied the necessary topics, reconsidered and analyzed their life goals.

Psalm 90:12: So teach us to number our days, so that we may bring a heart of wisdom.