Time Away

I just returned from vacation with my family in Colorado, and the long car-rides there and back provided lots of time to get acquainted with some new music. Just to give you an idea of what we’ve been listening to, here are a few new additions to our music bag, along with a few reflections.
For those into the indie music scene, check out the second release by Brent Adair, Austin-based singer/songwriter, called “Ostrich.” My favorite is the first song, “Time Away.” It was fitting for a family on vacation and became the theme song for our trip. You can probably relate to the opening lines: 

Lately I been feeling kinda strange
Maybe a little bit deranged 
Think I need some kinda change in my life
I’m gonna pack my little car
Pick me out some distant star
Follow it as far as I can see
By the sugar and coffee
It’s time to ease the monotony

Everybody needs some time away
Everybody needs some time away

That’s for sure. We know what it’s like to feel a little strange, even deranged by the monotony of everyday life. We know what it’s like to need a vacation, some time away from it all, and that’s the whole point of the song. The Austin Chronicle called it “a wit-soaked spin on the old-fashioned sabbatical.”

Sabbatical – it’s a Biblical word that means “rest”. Originally it meant time away from work.  After six days of work, God rested on the seventh, and the people of God did the same. A few thousand years later, “Sabbath” means a variety of things – a day off from work, an extended leave of absence, a vacation – but the basic meaning, like the song says, is “some time away” to rest from our daily labors.

The irony, at least in my life, is that, especially with a family of six, taking a vacation is hardly a rest from labor. It’s actually a lot of work: Organizing, planning, packing, driving, biking, hiking, baiting hooks, cleaning fish, cooking, cleaning…you get the picture. And yet, even though it’s a lot of work, it’s a kind of labor that ends up being restful and re-creational. Testimony to that: When I got back, though I felt a little physically fatigued, several people said I looked refreshed and renewed.

There is something elusive about Sabbath rest, but that is worth trying to grasp. I think it’s something like this: We’re always doing something. The question is whether what we are doing, whether it’s working, vacationing, doing nothing (it actually takes a lot of work to do that, doesn’t it?), is actually restful for our souls. I think the answer is that it’s not. There is nothing we can do to create the rest and peace for which our souls long. It is something only God can do, and has done, through the work of Christ on the cross, dying for our sins, that we might receive the forgiveness, healing, and wholeness that only come through him. It is something that can only be received. That’s why the Book of Hebrews says that there is “another Sabbath,” a deeper more authentic rest of the soul that comes only through believing, through entrusting oneself to Christ. (Heb. 4:3)

Here’s the paradox: That’s something we can do no matter what we are doing. Time away means time with him, and that can happen any time, any place. I would say it’s the key to the “abundant life” the Bible talks about. We could all use a little more of that. Like Adair sings, “I had the less so now I’m all for the more.” Sabbath is where you’ll find it.

Blogging off,

Jeff

P.S. Yes, Adair is the brother of my wife, and he did send us the CD, but that doesn’t for a minute mean that I’m not totally up on the Austin indie music scene…and if you want to check out “Ostrich,” go to Adair’s Myspace.