What Did Your Last Vacation Look Like?

Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

This verse floated through my mind during “vacation” (which, let’s be real, was a “staycation”). At a nonprofit, it’s easy to never really on vacation. Some nonprofit professionals I know use vacation time to set an “out of office” auto response on their email, and then they spend the day reading emails and delay-sending them to the following morning. I know others who say they are on vacation, don’t respond to email, but to every text, phone call, and instant message on social media. I’ve been guilty of both in the past.

Or how about this scenario: You take a vacation day from “normal” work to volunteer for another nonprofit, or work on that partnership that will advance the nonprofit you work for, or to try to ignore the needs and still wonder about that client on the street. I’ve been guilty of this “vacation,” too!

This verse questions our wisdom in the reasoning of not taking time away from the daily rituals and strains. Some interpret this verse as a long-term strategy. Meaning, what should I spend the course of my life with, the totality of my days? It’s a reminder of our mortality. And that’s not a wrong interpretation. Evaluating the past (briefly) to talk to God about the future is a wise move.

Yet, during my last vacation, this verse was more immediate. I needed God to arrange my hours, the numerical units that made up just that day. Living for what was at hand seemed to be the plead of my heart.

So, I asked God to number my day; So that what I did in that day would be of benefit for the days to come. In other words, may this one day away from my paid nonprofit work be the foundation of the wisdom I need when I go back to that nonprofit work. May my heart be wise in the moment. And by doing so, I’ve set myself up for success in the future if I am constantly asking God to arrange my day.

Prayer: God, sometimes I get ahead of myself and try to count my days before they’ve arrived. Please help me in this moment to give You what is left of my day so that I may be wise in how I use it.

How was your last vacation/staycation? What did you do? How did you find that gave you wisdom for the days ahead? Wanna share? Leave a comment at Facebook @HopelesslyHopefulBooks. https://www.facebook.com/HopelesslyHopefulBooks

Your job isn’t all that matters. Your life hangs in the work-life balance! Watch the replay here if vacations are not vacations.

Photo by STIL on Unsplash

3 comments

Number our days. Being sensitive to what God has blessed us with and not letting it just…, pass by. Thinking about the Sabbath, now that’s a weekly happening. Then about the different times set aside by God to remember, to remember festival of weeks, booths…
Ok, so then looking at the definition of vacation takes you to a very different place. When younger it seemed to be when we would visit family and friends across the country. Somewhere along the line the realization came that, that was no vacation! Also found that it took (me) about 3 days to truly unplug from life as normal and just “be” when there were times that we would shut down. It was and is marvelous and provides special opportunities to connect with God.

Just some thoughts…

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Hopeful_Bond says:

March 3, 2021 at 7:12 pm

These are some really good thoughts! You’ve given me some items to think about…like the difference between a family visit and a vacation and a Sabbath. Thanks for sharing!!

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