Something strange happens to me whenever I take time off of work: I get angry.  Does this happen to anyone else?  Actually, to be clear, it’s less of an “anger” really, and more of a grumpy, frustrated, fear-filled sense of annoyance.  Yeah, that clears things up.

It’s tough to explain, but every time I take time off for a vaction the first day - and just the first day - is spent in a total funk.  It’s as if my mind needs 24 hours to completely detox from work in order to fully enjoy the time being spent with family.  Now, this is not to say that my job is some kind of toxic addiction.  No, those of you who know me know that I love what I do and that I am blessed to serve in a pretty balanced ministry.  But still, when the time comes to shut it down for a few days, those first few hours aren’t pretty.

If I had to figure out just “why” this happens, I’d spin it like this:  For each of us the demands and responsibilities of our vocations are what drive our daily existence.  They’re the motivators moving us from one moment to the next.  Dinner’s gotta happen, the meeting has to take place, the sermon must be done, the emails need to be written.  And it’s not a bad thing.  Actually, its a good thing because God is working through each of our callings to do stuff in His world and provide things for His world.

However, when the time comes to detach from these demands for the sake of sanity and rest, it can feel like trying to stop a fast moving freight train on a dime.  And I think that’s what happens with me.  I spend so much of my time living off of the demands of family life, ministry life, and all of my other lives - like a college kid sustains his studies via Red Bull - that when I change the settings to “vacation mode” my mind just doesn’t know what to do.

I literally start to wonder: ”Will the world fall apart without me?  Did I forget to prep anyone for my absence?  Have I slaved hard enough to actually deserve a break or am I like that guy constantly described in the book of Proverbs?  Will Lisa really be pissed if she catches me checking the BlackBerry?”  And so for the next 18 to 24 hours, I’m no fun.  This is why I marvel at those people who can just jump into vacation mode without thinking twice about all of the things they’re pressing ‘pause’ on.  Amazing.

But for me, the next day is always pure joy.

As I write this post, tomorrow will be that day.  The funky fog of the first day is lifting.  And as far as I can tell the world won’t miss me much this week.  But perhaps that’s the point of vacations.  You step away from jobs that can easily replace you in order to focus a family that can’t.  Here’s to a fun week.