Blurring boundaries between work, home

A time for renewal

When pastors and church members tell me that they never take a day off from work or that they can’t imagine taking two or three weeks off for vacation, I can’t resist making a speech in opposition to that attitude.
Of course, I understand that some people can’t leave the businesses they run on their own because they would lose significant income. I also understand that some pastors are perceived as not having a strong work ethic and for whatever reasons seem to do just what they have to in order to get by. But I believe that both categories of workers are the exception and not the rule.
What troubles me generally is that our society has taken on habits that blur the boundaries between work and leisure or work and home life to the point that we now expect to be able to disturb folks wherever they are and whenever we desire. Notice while you’re waiting in airports how many people around you are working on their cell phones or laptops while they’re waiting to take off or the instant the plane touches ground. In cars, in stores, in restrooms, in fast food lines, people are working, and we take all that for granted as though it is the way it’s supposed to be instead of a cultural shift. Was it really that long ago that you could sit quietly and think your own thoughts or have conversation with the people around you without constant disruption from people wheeling and dealing on their phones?
I admit I am old enough to remember the days when the drill after work was for adults to sit out in the front yard in lawn chairs in the evening to chat with the neighbors while the kids played nearby. I know those days are never to return. I admit also that my attitude is rooted in what my family of origin taught me about time off from work.
My parents relished taking their two weeks of vacation each year and planned annual adventures to the interior of Mexico or the Coastal Bend to relax and have fun. The ride home that ended that annual family vacation was always a bittersweet experience.
More importantly, time off is a biblical concept. We even have a name for it—Sabbath. It’s an old-fashioned word but a good word. Our spiritual ancestors believed that Sabbath was a God-given gift, that even God needed rest after the glorious and exhausting work of creating an entire magnificent universe.
My husband, John, and I have returned from two weeks in Tuscany and Umbria in Italy, an area of the world that has many ancient and beautiful religious sites and gorgeous countryside. We had lots of memorable adventures and some stressful experiences, too. It was a refreshing time that enabled us to return to our 24/7 lives as pastors with lighter steps and clearer minds for the tasks ahead this fall.
I hope that you, too, dear readers, have found Sabbath, not just for a day or two here and there in the year but for the weeks or even the months it takes our souls and bodies to receive deep, abiding renewal.