For those of us who live on the Sunshine Coast, the end of the school holidays is always a significant event.

The crowds become fewer, the traffic becomes less hectic, the shopping centres are more accessible and our visitors return to their homes.

For many of us locals, the “holiday season” is in fact a time of increased activity. We almost need a holiday after the holidays are over.

However, holidays are extremely important! All the indications are that we as a national society are living in times of increasing financial stress.

The great Australian dream of home ownership is becoming increasingly elusive for young folk starting out.

Australians are now regarded as some of the hardest workers with some of the longest hours in the developed world.

As we live in the “must have it now” generation, the financial pressures on individual households constantly increase.

I saw a report recently that credit card debt in Australia has now gone beyond $60 billion.

Another piece of the jigsaw is equally worrying. Our political leaders constantly remind us that unemployment is significantly low, much lower than it has been for many years.

Is it true that when those who are in employment are counted, all you need is to be working for two hours a fortnight to qualify as being employed? Is this some kind of a sick joke that intentionally covers up a significantly high youth unemployment rate?

The real figure would add significant stress to these people who are trying to plan and secure a future.

When this is mixed with what I believe is an unhealthy sense of insecurity in our society, then the foundations we are laying for our future is possibly being built on sand!

I don't think there is any doubt that we as a nation are more focused on our national economy than ever before. The economy, and some even suggest job creation and maintenance, becomes an ultimate value, more important than the ecology, global warming and its implications, and real human needs.

If the economy is seen in isolation from human needs and values, and the ecological needs of our planet, then ultimately the economy itself will become threatened.

There is no question that the economy is a vital part of Australian society. However, its value and importance must always be placed in the overall context of other values.

We humans are complex realities with important needs; we are not simply teeth in a cog of an economic production machine.

Holidays and time out are not simply burdens on the economy, and downtime from productivity, but rather are an important and productive part of it.

They are also a very important part of balancing our human life.

In a time when it seems to me that holidays have less importance in the lives of stressed and very busy people, maybe we need to rediscover and re-evaluate the importance of time out and personal regeneration.

The Jewish people surrounded the Sabbath with a series of laws that inhibited and minimised work. The very purpose of this was to regenerate the human person with rest.

In the story of creation in the book of Genesis, even God rested on the seventh day. If we become a people without holiday or rest, it will be little wonder if we lose sight of the value of our own humanity.