TAKING SOME DAYS OFF
The radio talk show host wanted to know, “Do people ever really get away anymore?” He spoke of “down time” as one of those lost arts of the modern age. He remembered vacations with his parents where they would stay in a cabin with no telephone. Why does that sound so archaic? These days most people carry their telephone with them. The talk show host certainly had a point: Do we ever take a vacation without being linked to our office by our electronic devices? Modern technology has so encroached upon lives that we feel a need to be electronically “connected” at all times to the outside world. What would happen if for a few days we did not check our emails or call the office? Would the world stop revolving? It used to be that the idols of the timetable, schedule and organization made life exhausting. Many are still enslaved to the vice of overwork, but now it seems that technology largely dictates our daily lives.
In my library is a book entitled, “Days Off,” written by Henry Van Dyke, and published in 1907. People a century ago would certainly have known something about getting away. It’s one of those books that I intend to read when I have some days off. The book begins with a fictional discussion between a young boy and his Uncle Peter about what it means to take some time off. When asked what he meant by “days off,” the wise old uncle said, “I mean that every man owes it to himself to have some days in his life when he escapes from bondage, gets away from routine, and does something which seems to have no purpose in the world, just because he wants to do it” (p. 4).
Getting away not only makes practical sense but has the scriptural precedent of God’s creative activity in Genesis 1. As Van Dyke expressed it, “…it seemed right to Him to take a divine day off. And His example is commended to us for imitation because we are made in His likeness and have the same desire to enjoy as well as to create” (pp. 18-19). The creation of the world shows us that the need for time off is written into the very fabric of our lives. “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day…” (Exo. 20:11). The Sabbath Day became a day of rest under the Mosaic economy.
There is also the counsel of the wisest of all Masters to his apostles, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while” (Mark 6:31). As Matthew Henry observed, “The most public persons cannot but wish to be private sometimes.” Van Dyke’s comment is worth noting: “He would never have bidden them do that, unless it had been a part of their duty to get away from their task for a little. He knew what was in man, more deeply than anyone else had ever known; and so he invited his friends out among the green hills and beside the quiet waters of Galilee to the strengthening repose and the restoring joy which are only to be found in real days off” (p. 19).
In my library is a book entitled, “Days Off,” written by Henry Van Dyke, and published in 1907. People a century ago would certainly have known something about getting away. It’s one of those books that I intend to read when I have some days off. The book begins with a fictional discussion between a young boy and his Uncle Peter about what it means to take some time off. When asked what he meant by “days off,” the wise old uncle said, “I mean that every man owes it to himself to have some days in his life when he escapes from bondage, gets away from routine, and does something which seems to have no purpose in the world, just because he wants to do it” (p. 4).
Getting away not only makes practical sense but has the scriptural precedent of God’s creative activity in Genesis 1. As Van Dyke expressed it, “…it seemed right to Him to take a divine day off. And His example is commended to us for imitation because we are made in His likeness and have the same desire to enjoy as well as to create” (pp. 18-19). The creation of the world shows us that the need for time off is written into the very fabric of our lives. “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day…” (Exo. 20:11). The Sabbath Day became a day of rest under the Mosaic economy.
There is also the counsel of the wisest of all Masters to his apostles, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while” (Mark 6:31). As Matthew Henry observed, “The most public persons cannot but wish to be private sometimes.” Van Dyke’s comment is worth noting: “He would never have bidden them do that, unless it had been a part of their duty to get away from their task for a little. He knew what was in man, more deeply than anyone else had ever known; and so he invited his friends out among the green hills and beside the quiet waters of Galilee to the strengthening repose and the restoring joy which are only to be found in real days off” (p. 19).