Off

I remember several years ago when I was just starting out in ministry I had a conversation with a friend regarding work and such. He is a banker, and was talking to me about when he could come down for a visit. He had already been on several trips that I knew of, so I asked him how much vacation time he had. It seemed like he had vacation as often as he worked. He told me he had 8 weeks vacation. 8 WEEKS!?!

I wondered how anyone could accomplish anything taking 8 weeks off a year. That's 2 weeks in 13. He told me that he was glad the conversation had come up because he had some concerns about my work schedule. He said that there had been studies on the effectiveness of executives who worked various amounts of time per week, and that executives that worked more than 55 hours a week worked at lower productivity levels than those who limited there work to less than 55 hours. He also asked me when my vacations were scheduled because they were an important part of regenerating my self for the work ahead. At the time I had no vacations scheduled.

It was not long after that my father began asking me when my vacations were scheduled. (There's a saying about a kettle and a pot, but I won't go there.) Again, I didn't have any scheduled, and the first time he asked I remember thinking, "Who has time for a vacation." But the final nail for me was when a friend of mine in ministry mentioned that I was coming up on a third week of vacation based on my tenure. It made me wonder how much time he got for vacation because he had been at the church he was pastoring for over 15 years. I wondered because he rarely took vacation time.

That's when something changed inside me. It's easy for someone like me to get sucked into the schedule. But I determined to prioritize time off. I set my vacation times at the beginning of the year, and I try to stick by them. This week for instance I'm off. I'm learning some tough lessons, but they're ones I want to confront and deal with better. Here are my thoughts:

1. It's hard to take vacation when you don't have any money for vacation.

I tend to think of vacation as going away. But going away requires money, and that's not something Corie and I have at the moment. So this week I'm off at home. It doesn't feel like vacation, but I'm taking care of odd and ends that I put off in the course of a normal work week.

2. It's hard to take vacation at home when you work from home.

My office is in our home so it's very tempting to do little things here and there. This blog for instance, but this is more for fun than work (these are little things I tell myself). Anyways, I'll try to limit it to one post a day. I'm checking email, please pray for me to overcome some of the residual effects of work. Nonetheless, I'm taking naps each day to rest and catch up.

3. It's hard to take vacation when you don't plan well for it at work.

Because of #1 I had a hard time really believing I was going to be off this week. So I didn't plan well for it. Oh, I don't have to teach on Sunday, nor do I have to do follow-up or any of my normal routine, but I didn't plan well for the OT meeting last night, leaving Matt to carry the load, and I will be leading my small group Thursday which I look forward to, yet adding another clause to this sentence may make it the longest run-on sentence I've ever written...
Anyway. I need to plan better in the future.

So those are my lessons, perhaps you can help me learn. Does the collective wisdom of the blogosphere have insight that I might gain from?

--Ben