Vacations

Hi, friends, and welcome to the Weekly Dulin Podcast, a brief weekly reflection from Dulin United Methodist Church in Falls Church. Here, we take time to think together about faith, community, and what it means to live as disciples of Jesus in today's world.

Hello, Dulin Church. It's me, James. It's good to be with you today. It's time for our weekly Dulin Weekly Podcast Dulin Weekly Moment. If you're joining us by video or you're listening via audio on our podcast, either one, welcome.

It's always a delight to be with you. I've been thinking, that's usually what leads to these moments, a little bit about the fact that this past weekend was Memorial Day weekend. Now, in addition to the significance of that weekend as a time to remember those who have served our country and fallen in serving our country, those who have died, it is also a marker for the beginning of summer. It's the time when individuals and families and groups of friends and all sorts of things begin to plan for summer vacations and trips and travel. Lots of things happen in the summer seasons.

For some people, when you're still in elementary school or middle school or high school, it's a downtime. It's a time when you're no longer you're not currently in school, you're doing some other things. Same thing for people in college oftentimes. You might be doing an internship or having a job of some kind to help pay for the things that you need to pay for. But it is often a time of travel and vacation.

And that's what I want to say to you. First of all, I think that's a wonderful thing to do. Taking time to be on vacation, see different places, do different things, be away is a wonderful and healthy practice. I want to encourage that as your pastor, whether you do it in the summertime or anytime, time away is a good time to just kind of relax, step back, recollect, which means to recollect yourself. You might feel scattered by all the things going on in your life and it's a moment to step away and just to enjoy it.

And so my you might wonder what the purpose of this moment is. And the purpose is to encourage you to really drink in those times that you get, the downtime moments that you get, the moments you get to step away. And I want to suggest to you there are several ways you can do it. First of all, let go of all the things that you're leaving behind. Whatever it is, take that time to really just enjoy whatever you're doing.

Whether you're traveling by yourself or with friends or a friend or family, whatever you're doing, let this be a time to truly let yourself relax. We don't do that very well as a society and God kind of built in a sort of a plan for us for relaxing and that's called Sabbath. It's something we don't do very well. It's meant to be done weekly, but then also time away at other times can be Sabbath as well. Taking that time to step back.

So, I encourage you, let go of things. But it's also a time to notice things. Things that you don't get the time or you might say you don't get the time to notice otherwise. If this is if your thing in the summertime, if going to the beach is what you do, take time to watch the waves. Just sit on the beach and watch the waves roll in if you can.

Now, if you're traveling with small children, I know that you have to also watch to make sure the small children don't run into the waves and disappear. Very important to keep an eye on them, keep them safe. But is there a way to build into it a way to simply watch the waves and the rhythm of the waves as they come in? Lose yourself for a moment in that rhythm. Maybe you tag team with whoever else is with you to watch the kids kind of thing while you just appreciate those that rhythm, that natural rhythm.

You know, maybe it's a moment for you to just feel the ocean on your feet. Go stand in the ocean a little bit and feel those waves roll onto your feet. Look out and realize that you're on the shallow end of the ocean. And if you go out far enough, it's very deep. You know, it's almost a metaphor for what it is to be in the spiritual life.

We practice close to the water in the more shallow ways, simple ways. And then we venture a little bit more deeply, a little bit more deeply as we sink into a deeper relationship. Perhaps you are stunned by awe and wonder at a sunset or a sunrise over the water. If you can make time to catch that a couple of times while you're away on a beach trip. It's a wonderful opportunity to just stand in awe and wonder because part of what the Bible invites us to do is to hold God in awe and wonder.

Many have translated it as fear of the Lord, but that same word, the same root word for fear is awe and wonder. To stand before the beauty that creation all around us offers and just catch a glimpse of those oranges as the sun comes up in the morning, those bright orange colors or maybe it's a yellow. And maybe you see the clouds on the horizon and it becomes a metaphor for how your life is. You can sort of see things off in the distance. You get a new perspective.

So much more easy when you look off in the distance and you see them. Hey, are those clouds coming my way? Are they going somewhere else? All the while letting the rhythm, the constants of the ocean, the ebb and the flow, be something you can pay attention to. Perhaps you're not going to the beach.

Perhaps you're going to the mountains or someplace else altogether. But wherever that place is that you find yourself is an opportunity to just kind of cultivate a peacefulness within. Nature invites it. Relaxation invites it. Perhaps good food.

Perhaps getting to hang out with extended family members or friends that you don't get to hang out with and you just enjoy their company. Maybe you don't have time in your busy life to play a family game or a friend game, whatever it may be. And it's an opportunity to just step back and engage the world because we're a part of all that's happening around us. So often we get lost in our own world, we get caught in our own schedule, And we forget to simply appreciate all the beauty of which we're a part. We're a part of the beauty that surrounds.

But we're also invited to catch a glimpse of the beauty that's all around us because it might teach us something. It might be something we just come to appreciate like the beauty of life. In the midst of all the other struggles and the stresses we carry, simply being a part of the rhythm of ocean waves or sunrise and sunset or the breeze in the trees or the songs of the birds in a new place. Wherever you find yourself, if you are traveling this summer or whenever you are traveling, let it be an opportunity to sit back, be thankful for a bit of rest, a bit of relaxation, and let it also be an opportunity to kind of sink in to being a part of all that God is doing in the universe. Every moment is a new unfolding.

Every moment is a new opportunity. Every moment is unique in itself. And we get to be a part of it. Can you see yourself as a part? Can you suddenly, as you listen to the waves roll in, as you watch them roll in with a certain rhythmic movement?

Can you just feel yourself as part of all that is going on? Because you bring a rhythm to the ocean as well. And your presence there, your observation of what s happening transforms that experience. Just imagine if you become transformed by the experience of being part of the beautiful morning ocean scenery or the evening scenery or the mountain breezes or whatever else you might do wherever else you might be. What would it be like to be caught up in that and to let your heart find rest and peace and transformation?

And imagine that you could bring that back with you, that sense of peace, that sense of wonder and awe, that behind all of this amazing movement in our universe is a God who is both infinite and transcendent beyond our imagination and is close to us, closer in fact than our next breath, than our heartbeat, and who is fascinated, not only fascinated, but madly in love with you. Let summer and the relaxation that may come for you in summer, all the traveling you might do, be a space not only to rest, but a space also to connect with places and people, things, scenery that you miss out sometimes in the midst of your busyness. Well, friends, those are my thoughts for today with the passing of Memorial Day weekend. Certainly to be mindful of those who have given their lives so that we might truly experience life at its fullest, but also to be mindful that as we enter into a season often marked by vacation, that we really rest, we really live into it, and we really experience it. Let it be an experiment in connecting with God in and through and as all of the many people, places, things that you'll encounter on your journeys this summer.

I'm wishing you all the best. And if you're on vacation when you watch this, enjoy yourself. Until the next time.