”Summer time and the living is easy” are words to a famous old song about the summer months. For many, summer is their favorite season of the year. It is the time when most take their vacations. Relaxing at the shore or in the mountains may be pleasant. Jesus on one occasion said to his disciples, ”Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while.*’ The twelve had just returned from a preaching expedition and they evidently were tired although enthused by all that happened to them. They excitedly ”gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught.” It was then that Jesus said, ”Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while.”

If we are in need of a rest, is it because we have been laboring so hard in the Master’s vineyard? If we are tired, what have we been doing to get that way? Jesus said, ”Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life.” There are people who work very hard for the wrong things. These workaholics even spend their vacation time scheming how to acquire more. Micah condemns them saying, ”Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.” Amos tells us that these people say, ”When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?” These industrious people were working hard all right, but for the wrong things. It really goes back to the point that Jesus made to us, ”For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

While we are basking in the sun where are our thoughts? We never take a vacation from our thoughts. Emerson said that we are what we think about all day long. We think about our treasure; that’s what we meditate on. So even on vacation our minds should always be on the truth; it is also a wonderful time to study. We really never take a vacation from God; we should either be working for the Lord or resting in the Lord, but always with the Lord. ”Come to me,” says Jesus ”and I will give you rest... ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

What we do in our ”free” time reveals quite a lot about us. If we hum a hymn as we mow the lawn and praise God for the birds singing above us as we weed the garden, our minds are in tune with the God of the universe and we feel close to Him while we enjoy the change of pace.

If our ”free time” is spent watching TV, reading the cheap stories that come in paper back, or even if it is spent doing something we think is as harmless as a jig-saw puzzle, then we have to admit that this time is at the very best being wasted, and at the worst it is corrupting our minds with garbage.

God said through Zechariah, ”I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease.” Although this is ”summer time and the living is easy,” let us make use of our free time to spiritually re-charge our batteries for the fall and winter. It is interesting to notice that when Jesus arrived at the desert place where they were going to rest that he spent his time teaching the people for ”they were as sheep not having a shepherd.” He also fed them, all five thousand, a fish dinner. While on vacation we too must seize each opportunity to feed others spiritually. It could be the one sitting next to us on the plane. When Jesus was weary from his journey he sat on the well and taught the woman of Samaria. He was so revived from his stimulating conversation with her that he refused food when it was brought to him saying, ”My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me.” That’s our meat too. ”Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all in the glory of God.”