Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
One of the things we enjoy about summer is the chance to “get away.” What does that mean to you? Are you getting away from work? Are you getting away from home and the responsibilities that come with it? Are you getting away from the monotony that is your life?
When we “get away,” our routines change. Recently when I “got away” with the family at a baseball tournament for Holden, every day I was up at 6:00 a.m. Yes, you read that right, your Pastor who loves his pillow and his siesta was up early! But that is what happens when you “get away.” The minutes and the hours and the days change from the usual. I don’t like to sleep in when I “get away.” I like to be doing and going and enjoying. Some people, maybe you, are the complete opposite. You “get away” to sleep later, lounge around and enjoy an adult beverage on a beach somewhere. “Getting away,” means different things to different people.
Do you ever want to “get away” from your foolish actions? Do you want to run to a beach and hide because of words you said in haste? Would like to sleep in and not face the transgressions you displayed the day before? Where can we go in those instances? The cross of Jesus. There we “get away” from our actions, our sins, because they’ve been placed on Jesus, and He removed them as far as the east is from the west.
Furthermore, our natural inclination is to wonder what we must do to be right with God, and that’s totally frustrating and wearisome, for it has no end. Once again, the cross is the reminder that Jesus did everything necessary to make us right with God and we have perfect rest, at no price to us. In Christ, our rest is eternal.
One of the blessings as a Pastor in “getting away” is the chance to sit with my family in worship. I always enjoy visiting a sister church of the LCMS. Have a good time when you “get away” but don’t get away from your life of worship. We need the constant of God’s Word in our lives.
In Christ,
Pastor