Vacation Hangover

Okay I’ve been home from vacation for 3 days now, you’d think I’d be over it but not me.

Now who doesn’t suffer from a vacation hangover every now and again? Well I’m suffering from it now.

I was feeling so great on the drive home. Chirpy, full of energy and ready to take on the world. I get home and I wake up cranky, unmotivated and completely out of sorts. After my rest away I should have all the patience and energy in the world so why don’t I – it’s the hangover thing.

My theory is that I’ve used up all my fun and happy vibes having a great time so when I got home I had nothing left and I to need build up my reserve again. This building up of happy vibes is made doubly difficult when you’ve got gray skies, snow, cold and yuk to deal with – totally happy vibeless if you ask me.

So how am I going to get my happy vibes back, well it certainly isn’t by doing the washing & cleaning the house. Let’s see I think that a tall order of chocolate and ice cream is called for, with a side order of movies, popcorn, Wii playing and generally having fun. I even think that I’ll put in an order of children’s laughter brought on by tickles and hugs. Yep this definitely sounds like a cure for the holiday hangover or even better still lets just pack up and go on vacation again ;-)

Book Review

THE CALL BY OS GUINNESS

In his book The Call Os Guinness showed me that calling in its purest form is the dreams and desires placed deep in our hearts. As Christians our goal is to live the life God has planned for us and to finally make it home. It is God’s call on our life that will show us the way and give us the path to follow to reach that ultimate goal.

Whilst reading this book I couldn’t help but agree out loud with the writer. There are several instances where his words solidified my thoughts. I became very aware of how easy it is to drift from our calling and find ourselves doing things for ourselves or for the world at large. I discovered how easy it is to use calling as a way of stroking our own egos and making things about us. It is easy to get caught up in the little things and in the details and forget what we are actually aiming for.

Listening to God’s call keeps us focused on our life’s purpose. It gives our life purpose. We are no long just surviving, just existing.

“Our gifts and destiny do not lie expressly in our parents’ wishes, our boss’ wishes, our peer group’s pressures, our generation’s prospects, or our society’s demands. Rather, we each need to know our own unique design, which is God’s design for us.”

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Finding and listening to the call on our lives makes us different. We are no long bound by society’s demands and life’s chaos. If we are running here, there and everywhere we are disjointed and fragmented. When we listen to the call we can live with purpose. We have a direction to move in. We are no longer pushed around, afloat upon the sea of material nothingness.

The final point this book brought home to me was the fact that we were called to ‘play to an audience of one’. Too often we try to live our lives to please everyone around us. We look for approval from our friends, our family, our boss, our co-workers and sometimes even strangers. When we are answering the call and we are focused on our purpose we no longer have to worry what others think of us. Of course we still need to live by society’s rules and we still need to keep our bosses happy for the income, but what we don’t need is their approval. The only approval we should seek is the approval of God. Is He happy with our effort to follow His path and answer His call to us?