The Vacation You

"Teach me Your way, O Lord, so I can walk in Your truth. Unite my heart to live in awe of Your name" (Psalms 86:11).

You know how you feel when you're on vacation—free, joyful, adventurous, rested, and wholly alive. That's how you're supposed to live every day. But for most, the moment you get back to "reality," you feel shattered again. There was a time I felt so broken, it would take nearly an entire vacation to feel some sense of wholeness—just in time to return to face the circumstances that were breaking me in the first place.

Any time you’re rejected, betrayed, wounded, discouraged, or embittered, it can break you apart. You protect the pieces as best you can, putting up walls around each fragment. But that means stagnation, and living less than your true self. Instead of blessing your life and everyone in it, you become guarded, distrustful, even paranoid. You bury the true you trying to keep anyone from stealing what's left.

Take a moment and assess your own state of union—within yourself, and with God. In Psalm 86, David asks God to "unite his heart," to restore the pieces of himself and become so healed and whole, he can see God's truth and feel His presence again. Choose to believe you can be whole again, and give God every part of yourself. He can heal any broken heart, but He needs all the pieces.

Put your hope in Jesus over and over until it's no longer a wish, but a mindset. Thank and praise Him until your perspective shifts, and you can see everything and everyone with the love, joy, and peace He does. Allow yourself to be passionate again—instead of becoming exhausted trying to protect yourself from life, allow yourself to feel and experience and adventure. Be who you really are. Be the vacation you.