“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” - Paul to the Church in Rome
Wanna get away? I do. That desire to just flee the circumstance we are currently in must be a fairly common denominator among people. Southwest Airlines has a very successful and long running marketing program based on that very sentiment:
Wanna Get Away?
There is the sense that if we were anywhere other than where we are, things would be better.
I used to regularly meet a friend of mine for coffee in a private dining club. We would sit at a table that essentially offered an elevated view of dozens of planes leaving the local airport. Watching plane after plane leave to destinations unknown would produce this strange longing that I wouldn’t have identified otherwise. I was in a challenging season and I think I would have taken a ticket to almost anywhere.
The passage above doesn’t speak to location, but to perspective. It is not so much about where you are, but what you believe about where you are.
The picture above in this post is an unedited version of the view from the deck of the home we stayed in for a few weeks in Colorado. I am still fighting the belief that one of my friends holds; that Jesus is somehow more present in that place than here. (Every time she says the word “Colorado,” she adds a quiet addendum “where Jesus lives.”)
The reality is, that He is no more in Colorado than he is in San Antonio. For me, out of my experience and story however, He feels more present, available, and powerful for me there. The unforced rhythms of His grace seem more attainable and real for me when I am there.
Despite the incredible generosity of others, I can only spend so much time in my beloved Colorado. Work, money, time, etc., all conspire to make it a place I am blessed and humbled to periodically escape to, but not spend the majority of my time.
There is a finite number of planes on which I can escape.
The real trick is to get away with Him in any context or circumstance. To live freely and lightly right here in the “river city” or anywhere else I might find myself.
This last trip to Colorado wasn’t an escape, it was more an “entering in” to a different way of thinking. “Here” is different because I was “there.” I am recovering my life generatively, right here in this coffee shop, 850 miles from the base of one of my beloved 14’ers. I am getting away with Him.
Wanna get away?