This past weekend, the whole Benedict clan was MIA.  We all took advantage of the extended holiday weekend to converge on Washington DC to help move Josh and Alaina from their rental apartment into their first home.  We weren’t alone in playing hooky, though; we joined approximately 34.4 million other Americans who took to the roads for holiday travel.  People took to the skies, too. Air travel was at its highest level since March 17, six days after the pandemic was declared. It felt great to get away, not check email, turn the phone ringer down and spend time with family and disconnect from the normal responsibilities of life.

I’ve been home now for over 36 hours and I’ve yet to find anyone from Bethany who was actually at church on Sunday!  Everyone, it seems, was out camping or at a family cabin squeezing the last few drops out of our summer vacation.  I’m a little worried… did the worship gathering actually happen?  I’m going to have to check the video feed from our online streaming service and see.

The human body was made to require occasional breaks. It’s programmed right into our operating system. We need down time. The Biblical pattern is one day in seven; but even Jesus and his disciples frequently withdrew from the pressures of ministry to catch some much needed rest (Mark 3:7-8, Luke 9:10).  Sometimes we view vacation as a luxury, but it isn’t.  Time away is restorative.  In fact, we often call our down time and non-work pursuits, “recreation.”  Did you notice the component parts of that word?  Re-creation…. When we put down the hammer, or trowel, or pencil, or stethoscope, or whatever the tools of our trade are and walk away, even for a little while, we re-create ourselves- stress is reduced, our health is renewed, and our perspective restored.

Interestingly enough, even though God set the pattern for rest in Genesis 2, he has no need of it.  His attention never wanes and his power is never diminished. He’s ALWAYS on duty, 24/7, 365 days a year, decade after decade, century after century, millennium after millennium. Psalm 121 speaks of God’s every present vigilance and steadfast attention towards his children:

Psalm 121

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

⁷ The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
⁸ the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Isn’t that comforting? The God, who is all seeing, all powerful, and ever present, is watching over you every single day of your life.  God is always on duty so we don’t have to be.

As we enter this busy fall season, especially in this COVID environment, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and think that it’s all up to us.  We have to make life happen, we have to figure things out, we must work harder, smarter, and faster.  But instead, since God’s always on duty and his strength is never diminished, why don’t we just lean into his strength? Let’s free ourselves from the burden of bearing our own load and let God do the heavy lifting. “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you” (Psalm 55:22). God never goes on vacation.