The President's Vacation--Just Thinking

Are you surprised that a lot of people are howling about President Obama taking a vacation? The big howl is: Should Mr. Obama ditch his beach plans and focus on the economy. In a way it does seem in these dog days of sweltering heat and so many without jobs and the economy going crazy—that the President would be lounging at pricey Martha’s Vineyard. If he had stayed home many of the complainers would probably have said, “Why doesn’t he just take off and be with his family—are the Obama’s having trouble?” Or “He could go to some place like Panama City, Florida or maybe Branson, Missouri like reg’lar folks.” Or “Why do these uppity blacks have to rub it in?” Whatever this President does—some folk just will not be pleased. Setting the record straight someone has calculated how many days off the Presidents took at this time in their administration. The results are interesting.

Mr. Obama—61 vacation days
George Bush – 180 vacation days
Ronald Reagan – 112 vacation days
Bill Clinton – 28 days

I remember the tut-tut’s when every other President spent any time away from his desk. Isn’t it a mite unfair to think that anybody can work constantly without a break? A friend of mine, Ed Bratcher says that ministers in trouble work 25% longer with half the results.

Dr. Wayne Oates struck a chord years ago in his book, Confessions of a Workaholic. He stated that it was foolish and poor stewardship not to take time off from your job. The workaholic does not do his or her best work—not to speak of their inattentiveness to their families.

In every church I ever served someone would always say: “Our last Pastor didn’t take vacations—he worked 7 days a week—365 days a year. What’s with this day’s off business? I followed one guy whose claim to fame was that he spent one whole summer painting the church! Somehow I had trouble finding that in my job description. It took me a long time to learn that we all need pauses and breaks in our lives. Why even the Ten Commandments remind us that we all need a Sabbath. I was told by one of my Seminary Professors, “It would be a good thing to take your books with you on vacation and plan your preaching for the next year.” Huh? That is no vacation. Study leave maybe or Sabbatical—but not vacation.

I have jogged for years. It was the time in the day when I could forget everything and just run my frustrations off. Early on I would work out problems and plan sermons and figure out how to deal with that handful that always try to keep their Pastor humble. But I learned if I put my mind in neutral the subconscious would do the work for me. I also learned that some of my best thoughts came after a time off. Sometimes on a study leave or vacation I came back with new ideas and ready to tackle the challenges once more.

I think the pundits are wrong that say the President should stay at his job and take no vacation. Why knows, even in a pricey place like Martha’s Vineyard there may be times when the President can put his job and his commitments back in perspective. Who knows, maybe in his pauses and silence from his many demands job he might just dream some new dreams and come up with some ideas for this very troubled land?

I do hope Mr. Obama can get some rest. I do hope he plays a little golf, read something not related to work and spend some time with Michelle and the kids. And I pay that when he returns to his job that he will be ready to once again tackle the seemingly impossible problems his job and our country demands.