Vacation as Teacher

Vacation.  I have been on one for the first time in a while.  The experience has been good and refreshing.  Now I sound like I’m repeating the ad slogan long ago for Coca-Cola.  I’ve had time to enjoy one or two of those along the way.

            Most people these days think of “vacation” as a necessary evil.  Many consider a vacation to be time-consuming, tiring and expensive.  After all, we have to “do something” in that time.  We’re not very good about disconnecting and relaxing.

            The word is misunderstood.  It comes from the Latin word vacare.  That’s where we pick up the term “vacant”—a vacant apartment ready to rent, which is empty and open, or a vacant stare, suggesting an empty mind in the other person.

            In this period, I’ve learned again what it is to have vacant time.  I don’t map out every moment of the day, nor do I have to answer each and every phone call.  It is empty time.  Reading and walking and being fill the moments.  A couple of days ago, I walked down the street with my dog to the seawall looking across the bay to watch a cruise ship pull out of the port.  Time passed as the ship turned around below the Norfolk skyline.  After the groaning of the ship’s horn to bid farewell, I then heard a young voice on the ship’s audio system as she cried, “WELCOME TO YOUR VA-CA-SHUN!”   And the people on deck cheered wildly.

            I cheered, too.  The Spirit of God can communicate in odd ways, through a cruise director on a ship heading off, or in the silence of these moments.  Empty can be a good thing—because God can fill me and feed me in my open time.