Read today’s texts first: Matthew 28; 1 Thessalonians 1-3
Often it’s in the hard trials of our vocation, not the “happy trails” of vacations, where God blesses us most!
1 Thessalonians 3:2,3 …to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. You know quite well that you were destined for them.
Often God blesses Jan and I with wonderful weeks of sun, fun and rest in warm places like Mexico and the Caribbean. The biggest decisions we have to make each day are whether to lounge by the pool or feast at another buffet. Such is the hardship of being married to a travel agent.
We call this a “vacation.” While the word sounds similar to “vocation,” their meanings are entirely different. Vacation, like “vacant,” implies emptiness or freedom from regular responsibilities. Vocation comes from the root “vocal” and refers to our calling in life (Eph 4:1). The Scripture above gives us insight as to the challenges we will face in fulfilling that calling or destiny. We often think that we will feel closer to God during the times of rest, but I recall a particular vacation when I felt closer to God on my first day back at work than I did all of the week away (from a past journal on this same date).
When I first walked in the college office door that day, a student was waiting for me to hand over the keys to her Dad’s 12 passenger van. He was donating it to us for tours. This was a miraculous answer to prayer, but as we went out to look at this gift from God we were shocked to see it had been broken into: the window, steering column and ignition vandalized. Then, while walking back from a great class with my students and hearing exciting reports from my week away, I was met with numbing news about a family emergency in the life of one of our adjunct faculty. My office became my prayer closet that day and what I read from the Scriptures earlier clearly came into focus. The trials Paul experienced in Thessalonica produced the church he was encouraging with his letter. It speaks of the same hope that inspired the despairing disciples after Christ rose from the dead (Matt. 28).
We are destined for trials because that’s when we cry out to God. It’s in those moments of need we experience the pervasiveness of His presence and the unlimited potential of His resurrection power. My prayer is one of thanks for both the vacations I enjoy and the vocation that follows. “Lord, strengthen and encourage me in my faith, so that I will not be unsettled by the trials ahead. You and I both know quite well that I was destined for them.”
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