A Prayer for Going on Vacation

One of the hardest things about going on vacation is being able to leave behind all the things that need to be left behind.

I've tried to keep those things in mind in this prayer that I've written "For Going on Vacation,” which shows up in the book of prayers that Intervarsity Press will be publishing next spring.

The kinds of things that we properly wish to leave behind, lest we carry with us a rash of unnecessary anxieties, include:

"the people that we love, the pressures that weary us, the tasks that we left unfinished and the problems that would hound and haunt us."

We also need the grace to embrace fully the things that lie ahead—which include "the joy of adventure, the delight of companionship, the laughter of play, the rest of soul and the discovery of beauty."

And the most desperate prayer of all is that we might "be refreshed in our going and replenished in our coming," because the worst kind of vacation is the kind that leaves you more tired than when you started off.

So God bless your going and your coming this summer, and may you experience your Heavenly Father as the One who delights to give his children good gifts.

On an adventure to see whales in the Pacific Northwest.