Bonus! | The Commonplace Holiday Episode
This episode is as much of a surprise to me as it is to you.
It’s been a hard week, and I, for one, need a holiday. And I was thinking that maybe you might too.
So, if you’ll allow me, I’m going to offer you and your children a fifteen minute holiday through the story of The Velveteen Rabbit.
It’s about being made real by love.
READ THE TRANSCRIPT
This episode is as much of a surprise to me as it is to you.
You see, I decided to take a little mid-season podcast break. Last week a terrible, dark thing happened and so it required my attention, presence, and focus. Simultaneously, I was preparing for our family holiday, which begins tomorrow. So caught in the whiplash of these two things, the podcast rightfully paused.
But my mind did not.
I know I’m not the only one who felt swallowed by brokenness this week. I know that just in my own friends this week has held deep disappointment, grief in loss and lack, worry about Americans and Christians abroad, and fear of the unknowns. I can only imagine what may have happened in your life.
But I also know that what we behold is what shapes us, and so while we live in a broken world, while we are touched by and contribute to the pain of it, a preoccupation with brokenness will only malform us. We can spend all our time thinking of the painful things, follow the accounts that tell us of every dark and devious deed done in our country, listen to the news that tells us of our righteousness and causes us to think of our neighbors as monsters, and envelope ourselves in every ounce of darkness that crouches at our doors and in our hearts---
We can do that, you know.
But will this preoccupation result in virtue? In joy? Or just an inwardly bent soul?
Right now, I’m sitting next to a stack of books almost as tall as my one-year-old that I’ve promised my children to record as audiobooks for our lengthy drive tomorrow. They’ve chosen their favorite stories, and each pick makes me smile.
They all feel very appropriate for a holiday.
A while back I read an article from Lindsay Bringham Knott wherein she discussed the difference between a holiday and a vacation. We Americans vacation. And vacation comes from the Latin vacare, which means to be empty, to idle, to un-occupy. We think to empty our calendars yearly, but, it might be fair to say that generally, we don’t think about what might fill that space.
In contrast, holiday comes from the Anglo-Saxon holy-day, which comes from both the sacred set apart of holy and the blessed ordinary. Holy-day is the 24 hours given over to heavenly worship and earthly celebration. So, as she wrote, to go on holiday means feast and festival, reverence and play, heaven and earth.
I, for one, need a holiday. And I was thinking that maybe you might too.
Just to be clear, I’m not inviting you to hop in the van tomorrow morning, but I am here to remind you that what you, a born person, need is to pursue the means of grace so kindly offered to us by God in the midst of a broken world: art, music, poetry, sport, fellowship, contemplation, worship.
These are the things that ought to make up a holiday: that uncommon gift in the common place.
While holiday-ing is not the whole of all life, it should be a regular practice to strengthen, restore, and remind us of God’s love as we pilgrim on towards the better country. As we learn that our reality is the love of God manifest in the people and things he loves.
I really do believe the things I share on this podcast every other week, that we need goodness, truth, and beauty if we’re ever to have our souls shaped in the joy of the Lord. And his joy abounds, bringing light to all that is dark.
So, if you’ll allow me, I’m going to offer you and your children a holiday through the story of The Velveteen Rabbit. It’s about being made real by love.
And if I’m breaking fancy copyright laws, well, I’m willing to risk it for joy.
