Last week, I drove past the RV graveyard depicted in the attached photo. It caused me to think about life, dreams, and things of lasting value.

From time-to-time, Jan and I will think about someday getting one of those small, van-sized RVs and hit the road for some vacation time. They are small enough to get around and find a parking spot and a lot better than camping in a tent. Then we do the financial math.

If someone buys a used RV for $30K and tries to use it for the traditional vacation of two weeks a year, you could reserve a lot of motel rooms at $100.00 a night for that investment. In fact, that amount of money would give you 300 nights in a motel which equals 43 weeks. That is 21 years-worth of two-week vacations. None of these calculations takes into account interest from a loan to purchase the RV, maintenance, and a place to store it once you make the purchase.

The line of old broken down and abandoned RV’s I drove by were standing atop flat tires and overgrown by weeds. Each one was held captive in their ongoing state of decay behind a chain-link fence. As I drove past their sad image, I thought of how many times we find ourselves in a fatigued season and make a desperate and ill-researched decision to purchase a bit of relief from the fatigue and worries of life.

In those thin emotional times, we might succumb to a salesperson’s pitch, and in a weak moment, become saddled with monthly payments, insurance, and maintenance fees, all of which increase our level of fatigue and despair. It’s not just purchasing an RV on time that produces this kind of dilemma; it is anything we think we can purchase, consume or possess that can give us the rest we need to be a healthy human.

I said all of this to get to this point, rest for our body and soul must be cultivated over time, all year long. A few short weeks away each year cannot reset our fatigue. It only changes the scenery. Rest is something we need to cultivate daily, finding mini-Sabbaths each day to maintain our soul. If we can do that, our dreams of rest won’t end up in a junkyard of despair and regret.