I'm not sure I've ever met a family as in need of a vacation as we were.
The past 24 months have been difficult for us to navigate. We did a lot of things: changed jobs multiple times, rode emotional and psychological roller coasters with our kids, mounted a long-shot political campaign, walked through some scary and stressful times with our friends, and on and on.
The end of the school year coincided nicely with the end of the political campaign, so a couple of days later, we loaded up the car to drive to Chicago to meet with our eldest and then to fly as a family to a Caribbean paradise.
I don't think I had ever heard of Antigua before we decided to vacation there. What I know now is that this small island not far from the equator is an amazing place. It boasts 365 beautiful beaches -- one for every day of the year, as the locals like to remind you. It has a rain forest and breathtaking mountains. There is important history to be learned and lasting memories to be made on Antigua.
And that's what we did for a week. Our family spent days on the beach. We jet-skied and rode horses. We snorkeled and toured the island. We met amazing people with fascinating stories and ate wonderful food. We did so much during the day that we dropped exhausted into our beds at night, not even caring that we didn't have wifi or cable.
It was exactly what we needed.
This much-needed vacation would not have been possible, however, without the immense generosity of some people I have never met.
A few months back, I was trying to figure out what we were going to do for a vacation. On a whim, I Googled vacation rentals for pastors. I found several Christian conference centers and campgrounds that give pastors and their families discounted rates at their facilities -- not our speed. But buried deep in the comments of a blog post, I came across a lady explaining that she and her husband owned a villa on Antigua they rent cheaply to pastors because they want people in ministry to know they are loved and appreciated. I reached out to her, fully expecting the week we wanted to book to be taken.
It was available.
And so we went on a vacation that refreshed our souls and reinvigorated our family.
This experience has me thinking, that while few of us own and can share a house on a Caribbean island, all of us have something that can be used to encourage and refresh others. It might be something we own that could be shared. It might be some skill or ability that, if we employed it in the service of others, it would make a huge difference in their lives. Or, it might just be our presence and friendship.
All around us, people are tired, worn-out and beaten-up. They're looking for something -- anything -- to give them encouragement and hope. We all own something we could share to bring a little bit of paradise into one another's lives. Let's do it.
NAN Religion on 06/16/2018