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The week after Christmas is always one of my favorite weeks of the year.  It is such an abnormal time.  Because school is out, many families take vacation.  Because it is the end of the calendar year, many folks need to use vacation up or lose it, and therefore take some time as well, maybe to take a vacation, maybe to just relax around the house.  It feels to me that folks in general know these things, and everything and everyone slows down.  I believe that part of it is the fact that people have been working so hard getting ready for, and putting on, all the aspects of Christmas.  After all, you’ve got to shop, buy, wrap, put together, and even buy batteries for all sorts of gifts.  And you’ve got to clean if family comes to town, or pack

and drive to visit family, even if it is just across town.  There are hams or turkeys to make and eat and clean up after.  There are trees to put up, lights inside and out, decorations everywhere.  Christmas takes a lot of energy, and the week after is as good as any time to rest, even if just for a little bit.

By the time you are seeing this, the week after Christmas has come and gone.  It’s time to take down all the decorations, get back in town or clean up after out of town guests have left, prepare for the Credit Card bill from all the gift buying, and get ready for school that starts up again.  The New Year brings new things from the workplace as well.  So, we kick back up into “the regular,” or as the church calls it, “ordinary time.”

I was sitting down to lunch with an out of town friend the other day.  I was asking about how life has been since we last saw each other, about a year ago.  We talk baseball (and the question of why we are friends snaps into focus) and I asked what games had been attended this past year, reminding him that I went to the Randy Johnson perfect game again.  “I didn’t get to a single one this year, time just got away from me.  In fact, I started to notice around late October that I was burned out and realized that I hadn’t taken any time all year.  No vacation, no time off, nothing.  I’ve got to make sure that I plan better for next year.  That can’t happen again.”

Life as we know it is much more like December 1 – 24 than it is like the 26^th through the 31^st.  Life is a series of things to do, places to go, objectives to accomplish.  As the world we live in heads back into the regular routines of ordinary time, make sure to make time for some rest in the middle.  Maybe it’s a weekend trip to the mountains, or an afternoon in the park, or a 15 minute time on the porch with only a cup of coffee and a good book as your company, or an evening walk around the neighborhood, or any number of things you can think of to find Sabbath in the midst of the busy-ness to which the world calls you.  Maybe you find

some time to pray in the middle of it all.  Maybe you just spend some time in quiet, and by doing so you hear the still small voice of God.  If you don’t plan on regularly replenishing your soul, then the world will bleed you dry, and you will look around and ask, “Why am I so burned out?”

The people that count on you to get whatever done need you to be at your best.  You can’t serve them if you haven’t found a way to replenish yourself.  Feed your soul.  I trust that if you do, you will be more able to,

Be Well,

                                                              Matt

 

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