Summertime is here! It is a season of vacation, relaxation, and a break from the usual routines of life. It’s hard to imagine a single person who doesn’t look forward to having time off. With the warmer weather and longer days, it is easy to get caught up in traveling, family visits, and social gatherings. While these are enjoyable and important features of summer, they can sometimes take priority over our spiritual practices and time with God. The change in our routine that often comes with summer can disrupt our habits of meditation, prayer, and attending church services. As a result, our spiritual growth and focus on God may take a backseat to the demands of summertime activities.

While our bodies and souls need rest, the enemy is resourceful and will use any of our circumstances to drive a wedge between us and God. But God never takes a vacation. God is creative. Often, He will use a pause in the routine to challenge our current perceptions, shake things up, or bring up things in our hearts that need healing and attention. He is not trying to turn the tables on us just when we finally get time to ourselves. Rather, He is using this downtime as a way of asking our permission to let Him come closer. He is always knocking at the doors of our hearts. So even while we are taking a well-deserved vacation, it is important that we create space for a relationship with the Lord, and not apart from Him.

Our vacations are a perfect opportunity to allow His sacred heart to be the resting place for which we yearn so deeply.

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).