I Do Not Believe in Vacation

I got back from serving in Matamoros, Mexico Sunday night.  Well, it was sort of Sunday night.  But that's a story for another post. Anyhow, I spent my Spring Break in the far northeast corner of Mexico, helping remodel a church, among other things.  The contentment, satisfaction and happiness that I feel as a result of this experience is vastly greater than any joy I could have derived from blowing that whole week and that money to bring pleasure to myself.  Of this, I'm more than certain. The bible makes it quite clear, over and over, that to give of ourselves is gain but to seek gain only is to suffer an insatiable greed.

"It is more blessed to give than to receive."-- Acts 20:35

“One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.” – Prov. 11:24

Pastor Gerardo and I

None of the walls were straight, so that's why we started in the middle. 

We went and handed food out in this area of extreme poverty.  You can see the shacks that they live in.

Our time on this earth is short.  The amount of people who need Jesus, out of more than seven billion, is astronomical.  The desperation of their physical needs breaches on the urgency of spiritual ones.  There is no time for galavanting about to relax and enjoy ourselves, doing whatever feels good.  We have not the time to go sight-seeing, taking it easy and treating ourselves to the local cuisine and entertainment.  There is no way I can justify taking a break from the mission and call to discipleship, commanded of me by the Lord Jesus Christ.  If I'm going to spend money traveling, very close friends/family and/or serving had better be involved.  Vacation is expensive and I'm not okay with spending that much money on myself.  On top of that, when you go serve in place that is different, as a missionary and not a tourist, you will still experience the culture. 

There is a popular place for partying and young people, just off the coast of Texas, called South Padre Island.  I took the bus to Mexico and subsequently I met a lot of different people.  Time and time again, traveling gringos and Mexicans in Matamoros alike, had a hard time understanding my agenda.  They all just assumed I was a college student on Spring Break, heading south to live it up.  The hardest one to explain it to was probably the customs/border patrol officer, when we were crossing back in to the States.  "Okay son, so what were you doing in Mexico?" "I was, uhh, helping to remodel a church and uhh, serving the people there." He just looks at me.  I was the only white person out of two charter buses.  He scanned my body language for any sign that would betray my story as false.  I guess he decided that people just don't something like that up and let me through. 

I remember about ten years ago my family went on vacation to Nashville.  I love my family but I remember I did not really enjoy that trip. We went to museums and various places, experiencing the culture of the Music City.  Now I see my discontent stemmed from the lack of action.  I'm a person that does.  I cannot stand to watch life pass by in front of me, doing nothing, just standing on the sidelines as a sightseer. I will never go somewhere simply to be a tourist ever again. 

In the summer of 2010 before I was a Christian, I studied Spanish in Costa Rica.  It was a wonderful experience that holds lots good memories as well not so good ones.  Probably the biggest thing I regret now is that I used that experience for vacation.  I'm appalled at how much money I spent, just to have a good time and experience all the things the beautiful country has to offer.  Instead of serving and getting plugged into a church, I went with my 'friends' to a different beach every weekend, to the clubs, to house parties, etc. I didn't hesitate to regularly go out to eat to try new plates of food.  I was totally in the godless secular mindset of 'you only live once.' Most people seldom get to travel to other countries but I had a whole summer and I wasted it!!  Instead of working to positively influence those around me and working to serve the community around me, I only fed the goal of pleasing myself.  Nothing that I did, nothing that I bought, nothing that I experienced lasted more than that moment.  But if I had died to myself, served and gave my resources to help those less fortunate, that would have lasted forever. 

Vacation for the sake of vacation will never happen again.  I'm fortunate that the nomadic life I have chosen to live has taken/will take me to lots of different places.  This summer I'll be all over the States serving and after that I'll be in California serving.  Obviously that life is not for everyone.  I just think we should rethink self-indulgent 'breaks' and 'relaxing' and instead consider serving somehow, someway.  The more we pour ourselves out for others and the benefit of the Kingdom, the more He pours into us.  I'll take that method of re-energizing any day over sipping a drink relaxing on the beach, watching the sun set in a foreign country. 

"Virtue-even attempted virtue-brings light; indulgence brings fog." -CS Lewis