WHAT IF GOD TOOK THE SUMMER OFF?

 ...or the month or the week or the day of the hour or the minute or even the second? What if God said, "I need a vacation from all this God-business, of listening to and helping answer prayers and all the rest of the stuff I do. I think I'll take some time off and let them fend for themselves for a little while."? What if?

I know what you're thinking: "Here comes the guilt trip. In fact, he's already started it with that question. Of course, God doesn't take time off. God doesn't leave us to fend for ourselves, not even for a moment. That is not God's way." So you are thinking.

Guilt trip? Maybe. But guilt trips are never very effective precisely because of their very nature. They appeal to our heart and not our head, to our emotions and not to our intellect. Yes, we do much of what we do not because our head says we should. Often it does not. But our heart says otherwise. If the Good Samaritan had used his head, he would have quickly passed on by.

Yet, on the other hand, we often do things we would rather not do, like study for an exam, but do so because we know in our head that we simply must if we want the results of what passing the exam will bring.

Of course, there are times when we don't do things we know we should do because we just don't feel like it. We should get up and go to church even though we feel like sleeping in, but we just don't feel like it. Momentary guilt sets in. But we overcome it and turn over onto the other side and say to ourselves: "Next Sunday." Then when next Sunday comes, we so often repeat the scenario. We take another trip down Somnolence Lane, Guilt Trip Lane notwithstanding.

The reason why God doesn't take time off from being God is that, I think, God loves being God. God could not take it for even one millisecond to be out of our lives, uninvolved in our lives. We, on the other hand?

That is not to say that we take ourselves out of God's life because we roll over in bed instead of getting out of it and going to church. Sometimes that is just what we need, maybe even what God needs for us that particular Sunday morning. And sometimes, well, let's not get into that. It would sound too much like a guilt trip, certainly very judgmental.

So let's get to the heart of the matter: as a former pastor my need to see you on Sunday, not from an ego standpoint (well, maybe a little) was great. When you were not there, I missed you. In the same way, when you are not in church, others miss you. God does not take time off from us because God would miss us no matter how much we drive God up the wall at times. We are part of God's family.

A church community is a family. And when part of the family is missing when the family gathers to celebrate, we cannot celebrate as fully as we could and should. More guilt trip? Only if you think so. If so, then what?