What Did You Do on Your Summer Vacation?

Good morning! Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Do any of you know the origin of Labor Day? Unlike Mother’s Day, the Methodists can’t claim credit for this holiday. In 1872, union organizer Peter McGuire suggested that a holiday be established to honor workers, the day to fall somewhere between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. Matthew Maguire organized the first big parade, a celebration that included fireworks and picnics, in New York City a decade later. Workers marched with banners bearing the slogan, “Eight Hours for Work, Eight Hours for Rest, Eight Hours for Recreation.”

The designation of the first Monday of September as a national holiday was signed into law in 1894 by President Grover Cleveland. The year before, he had sent 12,000 federal troops to end a Pullman strike, and the resulting violence led to the deaths of two workers. Cleveland hoped that establishment of the new holiday would help him win reelection -- he was not reelected.

Now, though, Labor Day is more a farewell to summer, a harbinger of school and fall and shorter days, than a day to honor workers. Labor Day gives us one last chance to relax and picnic before getting back to "real work".

So, what did you do on your summer vacation? Are you energized and refreshed from the summer, from the relaxed pace and long, hot, sunlit days? Are you ready to get back to "real work" and longer hours? Are you eager to return to school and dive into those books?

Or are you just as tired and burned out as you were three months ago? Have you worked just as hard as ever? Have you been making up for the time you “lost” on vacation? Students, did you spend your summer reading, not books you wanted to read, but books you were told to read and outline and summarize? Are you ready for the slew of "first-day-back" tests on all the work you were assigned over the summer?

It's okay to rest and relax. The Bible tells us so, right in the very first paragraph of the second chapter of Genesis! "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested …."

Jesus recognized the importance of rest, of taking a break from our labor. In today’s Gospel, we heard that Jesus told his disciples, “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while.” Vacations away from our daily work are necessary – in fact, they’re sanctioned by God.

We know we need vacations. But what if your “vacation” was hectic? What if you had a tight schedule, a frantic timetable, places to go and things to see and do, and you never got a chance to unwind? It’s not too late! In fact, it’s never too late! The last thing I want to do is leave you with the horrible feeling that summer is almost over and you’ve blown your one chance to relax!

In the NY Times Workplace section August 1^st, a headline grabbed me: “To Help Make It Through the Day, Schedule Minivacations as Needed.” The author, Lisa Belkin, starts out,

“Every hour or two – more often, I admit, when the writing is not going particularly well – I pause and take a vacation of sorts. My current favorite “destination” is Minesweeper, the computer game. After a few minutes I return to the real world, refreshed and ready to work, at least for a little while.”

This isn’t a new idea. Teddy Roosevelt, Rough Rider, Bully President, took ten minutes each day to – get this – read poetry! An article in the February 1940 Reader’s Digest was titled “A Vacation Every Day.” Its point was the same: take ten minutes each day to relax, to break away from the strangle-hold of routine.

Certainly, these diversions can refresh us. But as Christians, we have the perfect minivacation available to us all the time. We have God! God tells us, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” When we need a rest, a moment or more to refresh and rejuvenate, all we need is God!

We can go to God in prayer, we can seek his solitude and peace outside in his beautiful creation or within ourselves even while sitting at a desk. That was Jesus’ intention when he told his disciples, “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while.”

That was David’s answer when he renewed his spirit as he composed his psalms. Our souls are restored when we let God into our hearts, when we vacate thoughts of the pressing demands of everyday life. Whether we are blessed with a long weekend of green pastures and still waters or we merely picture such tranquility as we pray, God is offering to restore our souls and refresh our lives.

And traditional prayer is not the only “minivacation” we can enjoy with God. Kathy Coffey has written a beautiful little book titled God in the Moment: Making Every Day a Prayer. She suggests that there is prayer in that “ahh” reaction to a beautiful view, in the savoring of a cup of coffee, in the smile of a friend or coworker, as long as we are in a prayerful, God-receptive mood.

When we take these moments and thank God for them, whether in words or just in an amorphous feeling of gratitude, God revives us, refreshes us. God grants us that vacation from our labors.

We all need time for rest and relaxation, time to contemplate God's creation, time to hear what God wants us to do. So I challenge each of you: Make God part of your vacation time, -- a few minutes each day, one day each week, a longer vacation from the world when you can. Tune out the demands of the rest of the world for a little while. Let Jesus give you rest.

Give those around you permission for a minivacation, too. Hold back a few minutes when you see a coworker, a friend, a family member with a vacant expression. Are there any teachers here today? Imagine what would happen if some random evening or weekend, you didn’t give any homework. But you tell your students that you expect them to set aside the time they would have given to the assignment, not to work on another subject, but to rest, relax, and refresh themselves. It may mean an extra hour of sleep, time to daydream or stargaze, or time to feel closer to God. (I know, you can't say that in school!) Give it a try, and see if it makes a difference when the students return to your classroom.

Whatever your work is, in a formal workplace or at home, this week, give yourselves time off from "labor”. Set aside time to appreciate God’s creation, so that in those quiet minutes God can re-create his peace within you. Because when we do that, we can face the rest of the day, the rest of the week, the return of fall, with energy and purpose and joy. Amen.