Parents have been putting their kids on “time out” as a method of training for centuries. It is meant to give the child time to calm down, disengage from the highly emotional issue(s) and reflect on his/her behavior that lead to this situation. Often, it is the only way to stop a meltdown from continuing or a situation from getting worse.

The desired outcome is a reset of sorts so that an issue, situation, or behavior can be faced calmly, reasonably, and more easily be resolved.

Welcome to the Feast of Tabernacles.

If you don’t celebrate the Feast, please don’t leave me yet. I want to make a case for one of the benefits of putting yourself on a timeout on a regular basis. I’ll just be using the Feast as an example.

Is there anyone out there who doesn’t at least crave a timeout from politics and this acrimonious election year? And what if, just for one day you could hear only good news and not bad news? I believe there is good news to be reported, but good news rarely makes national headlines, and so, we get saturated with the bad, the worrisome, the painful, and the scary, with maybe an occasional report on someone doing good works.

To those who keep the Feast, it is a required timeout – mandatory time away from our normal, day-to-day lives, work, and responsibilities. It isn’t mean to be vacation, though many Feast sites are located in vacation resorts, state parks on beaches.

However, if this is the only time we plan to disengage from the pressures and problems of life, we are missing out in a big way!

Philippians 4:8 says:  Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things. 

At the Feast we stay in temporary dwellings to remind us that this world/this current age is not our home – that we have citizenship in a better Kingdom. We eat good food – dining better than we are typically able to afford.

While most of us cannot literally escape the problems of our lives or the world and few of us can afford multiple vacations each year or regularly dine on fancy dinners, each of us can set aside time in each day to have a “mini Feast.”

We can take a “time out” to Feast on the word of God. We can dwell in His presence for a time of prayer and study. We can unplug from the world and the bad news in it and give ourselves a time of refreshing and resetting from the “meltdown” that life can be while we meditate on God’s awesome plan for our lives.

Jesus us bids us to do just that: Matthew 11:28-30 [ESV] 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. I know that my soul needs some rest from the drama going on in the world. Perhaps yours does too.

While I am away on my “time out” at the Feast of Tabernacles at beautiful Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky, my wish for you is that you will put yourself in “time out” and least for a little bit every day and that you will, thereby be refreshed.