Vacations are hard for me. As near as I can figure, I haven’t taken a real vacation, other than a day off here and there, in over twelve years. But I did this summer. And it was great.

I have lots of reasons for not taking a vacation regularly. I have a large family, and it can get expensive. There’s too much to do here, both in ministry and at home. It’s tough to find people to care for the pets, get the mail, and water the garden while we’re gone. I live by structured routines, and vacations mess that up. And I could go on and on.

But we decided that it was time to take a week away for a change this summer. We settled the details on all of my objections, found people to check the mail and feed the cat. Someone else watered the garden and checked the tomatoes. And we took a week and spent it with some friends on Table Rock Lake.

Because I am a structured person, and live by my routines and like to plan things out, I deliberately did not plan any details for this trip, other than the day we spent at Silver Dollar City, a theme park in Branson, Missouri. My ten-year-old son saved his money for almost two years to buy the family tickets to go there, which is an incredible story in itself. But that’s the only thing I planned.

Besides that one day, my goal was to get up when I wanted to, sit on the dock, or in the water at the end of the dock, and drink a few cups of coffee. That’s it. And for someone who loves a good routine to his day, that was a very difficult thing for me to do.

I can’t say that God taught me much through this, because all the things I have been processing for the past few days are all things I have known for a long time. But he definitely reminded me of a few things and reinforced a few others. First and foremost is the fact that I need to take a break and rest once in a while. I know that I am bad at keeping my day off and taking breaks. I get some momentum rolling and I want to capitalize it. Plus, I’m a fan of being as productive as I can be. But this week reminded me that I need to stop once in a while and feed the fish, or jump off a dock, or watch the kids laugh, or even take a nap in the shade of someone’s boat.

The second thing that stood out to me from this week is the fact that great friendships stand the test of time. We developed an incredibly deep friendship with a couple of people more than ten years ago, when I was the youth minister at a church in Kimberling City, Missouri. We have kept in touch over the years, getting together occasionally for sushi or to watch a comedian here and there. It has been one of those friendships that, even though you may not have seen them for a year or two, when you do get together, you pick right up where you left off. In my experience, those kinds of friends are rare. Spending a week with people that know us and love us so much was an intensely great time.

Finally, I was reminded that it’s not just me that needs a break once in a while. My family does too. While it might be expensive at times, it’s worth it. And even though we were all packed together in a close space for the week, it was a good time. And despite the fact that my brooding teenagers deny the fact that they had any fun, I could see the smile on their faces and know that they really did.

It was a good vacation. We visited the church where I used to serve and reconnected with several old friends. We drove by the old house and checked to see how it was doing. We showed one of our kids the hospital he was born in. We enjoyed ourselves. And I think that was enough.

Question: When was the last time you took a vacation? How did it affect you? You can leave a comment by clicking here.