Early the next morning Jesus went out to an isolated place. (Luke 4:42, NLT)

Jesus active ministry on earth was only three years. Yet, he accomplished more in those three years than anyone else has ever accomplished in a lifetime. He preached some of the greatest sermons ever preached. He performed miracles of healing and provision. He started a movement that is still going strong 2000 years later. Most importantly, he accomplished the salvation of humankind. Not too bad for three years of work!

But for all that Jesus accomplished, he made it a regular practice to withdraw and to retreat from his work. Sometimes it meant getting away in the early morning hours to pray to his Father. Other times, it seems that he went on more extended retreat. Jesus shows us that times of retreat are important.

God established a rhythm of work and rest. He created the daytime to be awake and the nighttime to sleep. He created seasons for the fields of the earth to grow and seasons for the fields to lay fallow. He did not create you to go, go, go, go, and go. He created you to work and to rest. You are not a human doing but a human being. And there are times when you just need to stop doing and just “be”.

We often think about resting from our work, but God created us to also work from our rest. What comes first? Work or Rest? The answer is neither! We work from our rest and rest from our work. We will be more productive when we function according to God’s design. I find that I will get so much more done in the early morning after a good night’s sleep than I will ever get done when I am tired. The key is often not to keep working and keep pushing through when you hit a wall. The best thing to do at that moment is to rest and then come back to that work. Sometimes the most productive thing we can do is take a nap.

Rest is an exercise of letting go of control. It takes faith. The devil is going to make us think that everything is dependent upon our work and our ability to get it all done. He wants you to think you can’t stop. Unfortunately, too many of us allow our “work” to consume us for this reason. But there comes a time to leave unfinished tasks to God and trust him to finish what you are unable. Overwork will rob you of your joy, your health, and your productivity.

I’m Taking a Vacation

With all that said, I will be taking some time to rest the next couple of weeks. I will be taking an extended vacation where I will be gone most of August. It will be the longest vacation I have ever taken since I have been in ministry as a pastor. At first, I was more than reluctant to be away for an extended time like that. I feared that it would be too long to take off.

Some of that is a matter of pride. I felt that the church needed me. But Good Shepherd Lutheran Church got along before I arrived and it will continue to get along after the day I leave. The church is dependent upon Jesus and not upon me. And if the church is dependent upon me, there is a real problem. I am not as important as I like to think I am.

I Need This

I need this! I will admit that over the course of the last year I have felt run down. This has been one of the most trying years in ministry and my life. I have been strained mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically because of certain challenges that were faced. It has taken a toll on my family and me.

With that said, I have been blessed to experience times of refreshing and renewal. I absolutely love to be in ministry. It is a joy to have the privilege to serve the Lord in the way I do. It’s hard to take a break because I love what I do. But I need a break. I need to rest. I believe that this time away will bring even more joy to my ministry and make me more effective as a pastor.

Connecting with God and Family

I am looking forward to this time to connect with my God. I am guilty that my Bible reading and devotion time can often become more about preparing for my next sermon than it is about simply being with God. I am looking forward to opening the Bible without thinking about the next sermon to prepare.

I am also looking forward to this time to connect with my family. Work can rob us of precious moments together with those we love. I have attended too many evening meetings and gone too many conferences that took me away from my family. But I am not going to let anything steal my time away from them for the next month.

I will be setting aside the cell phone. I am deleting all my social media apps. I don’t think you need to see pictures of my vacation posted on Facebook. My laptop is being left at my church office as I do not plan to open a single email during this time. I will be “fasting” from the internet as I focus on being present with the people closest to me. It makes me nervous to take such a radical break from being “connected,” but it will be healthy to have a detox from distraction.

So I am signing off for now. I will be back in September. See you then.

Reflection

1. Do you agree that often the most productive thing you can do is rest? Why or why not?
2. How does pride keep you from letting go of control and put your work into God’s hands?
3. What are the things that distract you from connecting with God and your family?

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:8 (ESV)

It is not uncommon that I need to remind my twin boys to wash their hands when they use the restroom. Neither is it uncommon for them to question my directive. My response is to tell them, “Yes, you need to wash your hands.” I will also remind them that they need to use soap.

They will reluctantly follow through with my request, but it is not without complaint. And they will almost assuredly try to get away without washing their hands the next time.

Why do they question washing their hands? It is because they don’t recognize the need. There is no dirt on their hands, and they don’t see the germs that are present. They fail to grasp the importance of hygiene for preventing illness. Therefore, washing their hands seems irrelevant to them. They think that Dad is just being dad by demanding them to do something they don’t want to do.

In the verse above, James speaks of washing our hands and purifying our hearts. We might wonder, like my boys, why we need to do this. We think to ourselves that we don’t have any real dirt in our lives. We may have some germs, but our hands are not that dirty – at least not dirty like “other” people. We will just draw near to God by singing a song or reading our Bible. We will enter his good graces by putting a nice offering in the offering plate or by volunteering at the soup kitchen.

We think to ourselves that we never killed anyone, never been unfaithful to our spouse, or never stole money from anyone. We are clean for the most part in spite of our “small” indiscretions. Sure, we may wrestle with a bit of gluttony or a bit of pride. We might struggle with deceit or fits of rage. We may overindulge in alcohol or gambling. We might be fixated on reading dirty novels or searching porn on the internet.

The thing is that we don’t think of our faults as disqualifying us from God’s presence. We think of God as being permissive as we are. We will just draw near through our religious performance. But our God is a holy God. He does not tolerate sin. We fail to grasp the enormity of the moral depravity and our great need to clean our hands and purify our hearts. We cannot draw near to God with the dirt and the germs we have in our lives.

Drawing near to God starts with confession. It is to humble ourselves so that he might lift us up. Drawing near to God is not about what we can do for God. Drawing near to him about seeking his help, what he can do for us. It is admitting our need and our sin. It is recognizing we are not clean and that we need to wash be washed.

This washing is not with soap and water. This heavenly washing is to be washed with the blood of Jesus and the waters of your baptism. God is the one who makes you clean! We draw near through the forgiveness and grace he gives to us!

It’s just like soap and water. If confession is the water, God’s forgiveness is the soap. It is not our confession alone that makes us clean, but God’s forgiveness when we confess our sin (see 1 John 1:8-9).

Reflection

1. What does it mean to draw near to God?
2. How do you wash your hands and purify your heart?
3. Where do you need God’s cleansing in your life?

Yesterday, I spoke about how forgiveness breaks the cycle of ungrace. Forgiveness says, “I don’t need a tit for a tat.” But realize that something is lost when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is not fair.

The very word forgiveness includes the word “give.” There is a sacrifice involved in forgiveness. The sacrifice is not on the one who is forgiven, but on the one who forgives.

Think about the cross. Our forgiveness is secured by the sacrifice that Jesus made upon the cross. There was no cost on our part. It is hardly fair that Jesus would die for our sin. The Book of Romans reminds us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (see Romans 5:8).

If we are to focus on another person being worthy of our forgiveness, we will never forgive. Forgiveness is not fair to the person giving it. But we can let go of what is fair because we have been treated more than fair by God. Plus, we have something greater than fairness. We have the joy of Jesus and the knowledge that our debt is paid.

Who Do You Have to Forgive?

Here is something I can say with certainty. You have been wronged. You have been hurt. You have been offended. You have been abused. You have been cheated. You have been lied to. You have been slandered. Every human being who has ever lived has been taken advantage of by others.

You have people who owe you an apology. You have people who owe you restitution. You have people who need to make right what they have wronged. They owe you a great debt, and they have no excuse.

Often, the deepest wounds have been inflicted by those closest to you – a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, or a trusted friend. You are justified in being bitter and angry. They have a $12,000 debt they have not repaid. You are right in demanding that they pay you back every single penny of that debt. You have convinced yourself to hold on to that debt at the expense of your relationship with that person and your relationship with God.

Here is my challenge for you: FORGIVE! There is no doubt that it will cost you to let go of that debt, but you will gain something more. Ask God to give you grace and the strength to let go and to give forgiveness. Do not to wait for that person to take the first step towards reconciliation. But YOU give grace God has given you.

Reflection

1. What is lost when we forgive?
2. What is gained when we forgive?
3. Who do you have to forgive?