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Pastor · Sunday Schedule · FBC
News
 
2003
From the Pastor
A Time Apart
I have three more days until my vacation begins. By the time you get this newsletter I will already be back. What will happen in that in-between time? I am not sure. I have nothing spectacular planned, although a week of it will be spent in continuing education at Chautauqua.
Time apart is important.
We have a print hanging in our living room entitled, “The Reverend Robert Walker Skating in Duddingston Loch,” by Henry Raeburn. It shows a skater on a frozen pond, dressed in clergy black, his arms crossed in front of him, one leg on the ice, the other extended behind him. His face is almost expressionless. You can’t tell if he is thinking about his church or if he is focused on the scenery.
I think he is praying, but not the kind of praying we do in words. His thoughts are silenced. It is a prayer of stillness.
I hope I find such moments on vacation. I also hope I have some fun, see a movie, maybe start a new Harry Potter book, and spend an evening or two with friends.
A family at church told me about a day they spend at the beach. Another family is leaving for a two week vacation at the beach. Still another family is planning a week at a cottage up north. And, yet, another person told me about an afternoon he and his wife spent at Port Clinton.
All these events on the surface might sound fairly inconsequential, but to me they represent one of the most ancient and vital spiritual practices of our spiritual growth. The practice of retreat.
We get tired. We become irritable. We let minor slights simmer inside us. We find it easier to hold grudges. We simply wear down. Our spirits sag.
There is a certain inevitability to all this because of the complexity and demands of our life and the expectations we place on ourselves are too great.
Away from it all, even if it is only for a day, we entrust to God all we have left behind. We might not consciously think it but that is what we have done. We have in a sense said, “God, you take care of everything while I am away.” We give control back to God. It is the ancient significance of the Sabbath Day of rest.
Enjoying life on vacation is a way of reconnecting with creation and accepting that we are part of the created order. It is being in life rather than trying to control it, feeling responsible for it, standing above it.
We let go. We let God be God, and we begin again to feel the spirit side of ourselves. The capacity to forgive begins again to seep back into our lives. Problems become less overwhelming. We are able to look up at the moon and accept our own smallness, not as worthless, but as part of the whole, created and sustained by God.
As I mentioned the idea of a vacation is rooted in the ancient spiritual practice of retreat. In and of itself, whatever you do for your vacation, it is a spiritual exercise. The only thing I ask that you might do to bring this aspect of your vacation more to your consciousness is include a time each day, preferably a morning hour, to pray, to listen to the whispers of God around you and within you, and then throughout the day notice things in a Divine Light. Be ready to receive each blessing and say a silent Thank You.
Dr. David W. Andersen
           
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