A VACATION FROM GOD
John Killinger
October 1, 1988
Unless you're careful, being a minister can give you "altar burn" from overexposure to religious associations. It's unhealthy being around piety all the time. There is a stained-glass pallor about the people you meet. When they open their mouths to talk, you see little balloons coming out with all the print in Old English. Sometimes you want to preach in Chinese, or some other language nobody will understand, and say scandalous things while smiling like an archbishop.
Whenever that feeling gets too strong, I know I need a vacation from God. I need to be immersed in a world where the signs aren't all printed in Old English and people's hands aren't all folded primly in prayer. I need a freshness that will revive my religion-asphyxiated soul.
Sometimes I need to be in a large city where I don't know anybody and nobody knows me, where I can walk and gawk and be overwhelmed by the strangeness and the immensity of everything. I love to walk in strange places, see people I have never seen before and will never see again, smell the exotic smells, and feel totally lost. Something about it restores my being.
One winter night in the city of Kyoto, Japan, I took a bus bound for the center of town and got off when my fare expired. I had no idea where I was or how to get back to my hotel, for all the signs were in Japanese. Then the most tremendous snowflakes began to fall-the size of quarters and half dollars. Everyone on the streets looked like a walking snowman. It was exhilarating!
At other times I feel the need to be on a wide expanse of beach somewhere, listening to the cadence of the ocean and feeling the sun on my body.
There are other places to get away to: a cabin in the mountains, a good art museum, a movie, a walk in the woods, ...
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