Sojourning through life

Our image of vacation is distorted.

We fantasize about a glorious adventure or sublime relaxation. But does it usually happen the way the travel websites portray it?

For me, vacation begins with hours of research, sleuthing out the most economical flight and lodging arrangements to fit in our budget. Those hours disappear into the cavernous void of internet searches.

There’s also a bit of stress leading up to our departure, often imposed by my insistence that the house be sparklingly clean before we walk out the door (it’s a thing I have). And the last minute errands to procure whatever ‘necessity’ I’m certain we can’t do without for the coming days.

Those issues were just the beginning of the complications we faced on an trip we took overseas last summer. Once the wheels lifted off the runway on our international flight, I began to feel nauseous. The airsickness lasted for a couple hours but eventually I fell asleep. When I’d occasionally resurface into consciousness, I could see my husband tending to our nine year old son, whose behavior was consistent with someone who might have ingested some sort of stimulant: he was climbing the walls and seats instead of sleeping. (Which, naturally, meant my husband wasn’t sleeping either.)

After landing and clearing immigration and customs, renting our vehicle took nearly an hour. Then we had to navigate roadway signage in a foreign language and one-way streets to find our accommodations — all with our mental faculties trapped in a timezone far, far away.

Just two hours later, our now only marginally-less-hyper son fell off a staircase at the height of 7′ onto a tile floor. Face first. My husband and I took turns comforting him, assessing his injuries and shaking our jet-lagged heads to be sure this was really happening, while the other tried to plot a somewhat intelligent course of action. We didn’t even know what number to call for emergency services. Eventually, we ran into the streets, asking perfect strangers for help dialing from our American phones. We collected fragments of his (adult!) front teeth in our pockets and tried to immobilize his wrist, all the while hoping the visible injuries were the extent of his ailments.

Before the sun set on our first day overseas, we’d spent $1000 and 8 hours in emergency dental and hospital care. The plaster cast on our son’s arm was a weighty encumbrance for the remainder of our travels (a shower complication as well). Swollen nose and lip and black eyes made for less than idyllic photos, but made for a memorable trip.

Perhaps it’s more than our image of vacation that’s distorted. Perhaps our image of the Christian life is, too.

We rightly know that life with God is better than that apart from Him. But has that somehow morphed unconsciously into thinking it’s going to be easy or pretty, just like a glossy advertisement in a magazine?

Just before His arrest, Jesus warned His disciples that a time would come when He’d no longer be with them. They’d be scattered. They’d grieve.

Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.
—John 16:33 NLT (excerpted)

We may attempt to plan our lives the way we plan our vacations—with no assumption of difficulty or disillusionment. In reality, we should expect trails, sorrows and complications.

• We may fall. May it be on grace.
• We may chip our teeth. Let our lips bring Him praise anyway.
• It will be costly. But not in comparison to our gain.

Despite living in a fallen world of missed connections, delayed flights, unpaved roads and travel sickness, we have a companion on the journey that makes it all bearable.

God Himself sojourns with us.