We take breaks. We have time off.

PTO, silent retreat, weekend getaway on the beach.

Everyone needs a vacation.

But when was the last time you took a break from yourself? Your thinking, your worrying?

Prayer is most powerful when we’re present.

Take a vacation from yourself. Make time to breathe, to focus your attention on how your body is feeling, to observe everything around you. The temperature, the sounds, the lighting. Don’t judge any of it. These things aren’t good or bad, right or wrong. They just are.

When we take time to be this way, we’re on vacation from ourselves, our clutter, our strife, our struggle. And on this kind of vacation, I believe we can hear God’s voice the clearest.