People today lose their souls by not setting proper boundaries for themselves for work and rest.

Workaholics joyfully spend 90+ hours a week at the office trying to get something more out of their job.

They never take vacations. They measure their lives in terms of productivity, margin, and the bottom line. Although they may have short-term financial results, eventually the workaholic finds herself in the middle of a spiritual famine.

Why?

Because the only being that the workaholic trusts to provide for herself is, well, herself.

As soul-shiveling as workaholism is, I have noticed an equal spiritual danger. I call it vacatiaholism. This isn’t a sinful focus on work, but on rest. It isn’t sloth. Sloth refuses to work. Vacatiaholism tries to craft the perfect getaway all year, foolishly thinking that time on the beach is climax of our existence.

A person who is a vacatiaholic takes a vacation from everything, including God. While away, they have no need to spend time in prayer, scriptural reflection, or worship. They tend to get angry when vacation plans change and rigidly guard their own interests for their time away. While they are at work, they constantly daydream about their faux-heavenly destination and endure the difficulty of their job because they know that someday during the summer, vacation is coming back again in glory.

Vacatiaholism is sinful because it breeds disgust for our God-given vocations and believes that heaven can be fully experienced on the lake, mountain, beach, or golf course. It abuses the joys of rest by cultivating disdain for hard work and thus neglects God while on vacation or curses God for the work he has assigned from nine to five on Monday through Friday.

Brothers and sisters, rest is wonderful. So great, God commanded it. But, let’s not fool ourselves this summer into thinking that rest from our work, in and of itself, can save our souls. Only one type of vacation can do that, resting in the finished work of Christ in his death and resurrection and placing our hope in his glorious return.

That’s the only vacation our soul needs.