News & Events
News
All-Inclusive Resort
by John Bishop, Director of Spiritual Formation
Heather and I have taken a lot of different trips together. We were married for eight years before we had kids and we used to love to travel around and stay in bed-and-breakfasts and visit new places. Since having kids we’ve been restricted to more typical kinds of trips, but as they’ve gotten older, we’ve started to get back out there again. My wife especially loves the process of thinking through and planning trips. She travels around the entire world every three weeks...emotionally!
A few years ago, we made a life-altering decision: we stayed at an all-inclusive resort.
Can you remember when you couldn’t drive and were tethered to people who could? Do you remember that feeling of sheer exhilaration when you finally got a license and car and were able to go wherever you wanted, whenever you wanted? Well, I had that kind of revelatory experience after staying at an all-inclusive resort - 93.6% of the stress of vacationing was eliminated! Within 30 minutes of being at the resort and asking three different people if something was covered by the wristband, I'd been given I'd discovered the true meaning of “all-inclusive!”
There is an interesting Scripture verse in Matthew 6:33 where Jesus says in His Sermon on the Mount, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” What are all these things Jesus is referring to? Food, clothing, shelter, and by those physical things we can infer He was also saying, peace, security, belonging, hope…a full life!
C. S. Lewis said this about this verse in Mere Christianity, “Aim at heaven and you’ll get the earth thrown in: aim at the earth and you’ll get neither.” As a crude analogy I would suggest that seeking first the kingdom of God is like vacationing at an all-inclusive resort, so much about what made vacationing stressful when you were doing it in your own strength has already been thought through and provision has been made.
We think that we’re alone – we’re not alone. He will never leave us or forsake us.
We think if we don’t figure out how to make it all work out, no one else will – But God works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
We exhaust ourselves trying to carry a weight we were never designed to lift, and, in the strain, we watch our joy drain away – consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds. Do not be anxious about anything. God knows what we need.
Here’s a caveat: The benefits of the all-inclusive experience only matter while you’re at the resort. Excursions are costly and, in many places, dangerous. The moment I stepped off the resort grounds no one cared one bit about my little wristband. Off the resort, I was on my own and the expenses piled up. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…”
If we stay on the “resort,” and seek first the kingdom and His righteousness, we don’t need to clarify whether He has what we need every time our life circumstances take a withdrawal. He’s got it covered. Abiding in Christ is an “all-inclusive” experience. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.
Trust in Jesus and find rest for your soul!
Westminster Christian School, located in Palmetto Bay, Florida, is a private, college-preparatory school for children from preschool through twelfth grade.