It’s Sunday night and its been a long 14-hour day of work pastoring a church. And know what? I feel great. Know why? I just got back from a glorious 13-day vacation. Now I know what you are thinking. 13 days? Am I lazy or what? I left on a Sunday afternoon after church and lunch with friends. I got back on a Saturday in time to cut the grass before getting things straight for church on Sunday. I missed one Sunday service, which was ably led by our staff and other leaders. And I made sure to make that Memorial Day Sunday, one of our lowest attendance days of the year.

My family and I get four weeks a year vacation according to my arrangement with the church I pastor. I also get a one-month sabbatical every two years, and though I have been at my church two and half years, I have not taken that yet.

I must admit that I felt a little guilty being gone for so long. I felt indulgent and even questioned whether it was sinful to take that much time off, until I reasoned that I had to take the four weeks sometime and would rather spend almost two weeks at the beach at once (with two mostly travel days) than spend one week at the beach twice (with a total of four travel days.) And in the midst of my guilty musings, I was lovingly reminded by my wife that I have only missed four Sundays in two and half years at my church. She also lovingly reminded me that she was going to the beach whether I went or not.

We had a great vacation (yes, of course I went): long walks on the beach, swimming, biking, fishing, crabbing, even teaching my kids to play tennis. We read lots of books and spent time together talking over meals and recharging our batteries.

So why do I feel guilty?

I polled a few of my friends and found that many of them do not take their vacation time. They get three of four weeks, they say, but cannot find a good time to get away. Their company needs them, or there is a project they have to get finished at work. Sometimes the boss says it’s not a good time, and there is never a good time. So they keep working and never take a vacation. And they feel very indispensible, and very tired.

I think our society and even our churches, make us feel we are indispensible. We think we are so necessary to our organizations that they cannot do without us even long enough for us to spend time with our kids on a beach or mountain somewhere. And this, my friends, is wrong thinking. It is prideful and shows a lack of trust in God. Most of you desperately need rest. You need time periodically to think, to talk with your kids and spouse, to pray, to read, and to see new places. You are not being noble when you refuse to take the vacation time allotted to you. You are just being an idiot. [Disclaimer - In the spirit of our recent recommitment to be the kind and gentle blog we are supposed to be, I emphasize that I mean the metaphorical you, not you specifically. You, of course, are not an idiot; I don't think you are one, and even if you are one, I pass no judgement on you. That is completely between you and the Lord, and is, of course, none of my business. And no, I'm not talking about you.]

The law of the indispensible (which I just made up) is that those who are the most in need of vacation are the most unlikely to take it. They think their world will collapse if they leave it for a few days. The truth is that they will collapse if they don’t.

So from a guy who just got back and is still thinking clearly: take your vacation time. Enjoy your kids before they grow up and leave you. Enjoy the wife of your youth (or old age!). Be quiet somewhere. Read books and read your bible NOT preparing for a sermon or class, pray, pick blackberries (and don’t pick up your Crackberry), trade in your cellphone for a shell-phone (my daughter and I find them on the beach), ride bikes and walk everywhere for once, and by all means, learn to throw a cast net and catch shrimp like I did last week. Your life, your family and your ministry will be better for it.