Getaways

Every year Allison and I go somewhere on our own (sorry Riley 🙂 ) to read, reflect, plan, and just be together. This year when we were thinking of places to go I immediately was saying “Let’s go to Branson, let’s go to Vegas, let’s go to Dallas, let’s go to Chicago!”

See, all of those places I mentioned have one word in common… busy.

I love adventure! Seeing new things, going to new places, and seeing the possibilities that await gets me excited! But this year seemed different as we talked about where to go. Allison was set on going somewhere that was the opposite of busy.

She wanted somewhere where we didn’t have anything to do. She didn’t want to have a schedule, to buy tickets to anything, to be somewhere by a certain time, she wanted to do nothing.

This sounded like not a lot of fun to me and the reason was because sometimes I feel if I’m not seeing something I’m missing something. I just didn’t want to feel like we missed out on something because we did nothing.

The more I thought about it though, I came to agree with her as this could be an opportunity to do something different. So we decided to go somewhere and do nothing! We settled on the cute little town of Grove, OK where there is a beautiful lake and beautiful scenery.

While there, I had so much time to read and just be with myself that I had a realization. The last time I had a time like this at a place like this was in 2015 when I went away alone by the ocean to do nothing. 9 years went by fast… I’ve had plenty of vacations and adventures over these 9 years but they have all been busy and packed with things to do and people to see.

There’s nothing wrong with that if that’s what fills you up, but I seemed to forget over the years that true getaways… getaways where nothing is happening truly fill my heart and soul. Jesus helped me remember this truth about myself:

I can’t have stability without tranquility

As I sat by the lake on this getaway I felt so much peace entering my heart and soul. Not to say that my life wasn’t peaceful before this, this just made a difference. You know peace when it hits your heart. You feel it because it’s real.

Because there was no noise, I was able to do a lot of self-reflecting and reading that helped me be more excited about who I am in Jesus and how He’s growing me right now. Here’s a snapshot of where I was:

The truth is, we don’t miss out on seeing things if things aren’t what we need. If anything, what we really miss out on is ourselves being filled with what we need.

Going forward I am going to be more intentional about remembering this about myself and try to plan more trips that involve doing nothing versus being filled with things to do and see. I might do a rotation of trips where every other year is a trip where we do nothing. Or I could do a weekend trip once a year just for this purpose.

Reflection:

Have you ever thought about what fills you? I don’t mean what brings you a moment of thrill or joy. Those are different things. But what truly allows you to focus on Jesus and what He’s doing in your life. What is it for you?

If you haven’t discovered that, I challenge you to discover this by spending time on your own and seeking Jesus who knows you better than you know yourself. Ask Him what this might be for you and then think about when you can do whatever it is.