T. David Beck: The Simple Way of Jesus

Having just gotten back from a week away with my family in San Francisco and Santa Cruz, I wanted to offer an observation about vacations. They can very easily become the most fun, entertaining, and spiritually alienating days of the year. Vacations start long before we walk out the front door, pulling our packed bags behind us. We plan for vacations, anticipate them, and prepare for them. We picture what we will do. We save money to spend in ways (and in volumes) far out of the ordinary. This is all highly dangerous activity, and here's why. People have been taking holidays for centuries. What makes us different in America is that we are incredibly wealthy by global and historical standards, and we are highly trained consumers. When we go into "holiday mode," our consumerism gets switched into high gear. This is " our  time," and we plan to do what  we  want with  our  money. And that is the spiritual trap that awaits us when we go on vacation -- or e...

Last time I posted , I described God's love as Creator that he made known to me on my recent retreat. In this post, I want to tell you what he really wanted to say. It's a message I believe we all need to hear and be reminded of. As I started my retreat, I was praying, "Father, I have two days, and this is technically 'work time.' I want to come away with something I can bring back with me -- a 'product' or 'result.' Something that will help me and/or Sanctuary move forward. But more than anything, I really want to know what you want to do." Through the course of the next several hours, God's agenda became clear to me. His call was: "Come away and be my son." Over and over I heard these words in my heart. "Come away and be my son." Not "produce something." Not "make something happen." Just "be my son." Just "be." One of the beauties of the retreat is that I had hours to ...