3. Don’t Exercise
And since you are just chilling, waiting to be called on for the next crisis, make sure that you don’t do anything physical. Let’s be honest, we’re really not cut out for it, are we? For 40-50 hours a week our job involves sitting. Sitting to study, sitting to meet with people, sitting through another meeting; the only time we do any amount of standing is on Sunday morning for our 40 minutes in front of the church. And I don’t know about you, but I keep a stool close by, just in case I start to feel tired.
Oh, I hear the excuses – knee injury this, sore shoulder that, but I’m not talking about training for a triathlon. I’m talking about any movement at all: gardening, taking a hike, doing a project around the house. If you’re serious about feeling lethargic on your first day back, you need to make sure that the word sedentary becomes your motto and a La-Z-Boy is your logo.
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4. Don’t Get a Hobby
Which brings us to the final piece of advice for wasting time off. Avoid anything that resembles a hobby or an interest outside of the church. Make sure that all your thoughts are consumed with everything going on in your church. Guard against anything that might be a breath of fresh air from the daily grind of the pastorate. Force yourself to keep replaying conversations – either real or fantasized about. Better yet, bring some work home – a sermon left unfinished for Sunday, an article that needs written for the denomination publication, a class that needs prepped for. And because it’s your day to chill, keep putting it off until late in the day so that it consumes your mind, but it never actually gets checked off the “to-do” list.
Add all these ideas together and when you arrive at your office after a week’s vacation, wearing a white shirt to accent your tan, you’ll guarantee that your soul will still feel empty, you’ll be just as frustrated with that extra-grace-requited parishioner and all the ritual of church will feel just as stale. And that will be a soul weariness that no amount of coffee can perk up.
Of course, you could do just the opposite and experience significant renewal.
