Journey Of Foot And Soul

Fort Recovery, Ohio
Volume 3, Issue 8
June 22, 2008

-Journey Of Foot And Soul-
…called to go…

It’s Sunday night and I find myself alone, reflecting on where the day has gone. Time spent with family, laughing with nieces and nephews, moments cherished.

Constant travel and “adventure” has it ups and its downs. I am never settled. I am always passing through. During recent interviews, I was asked over and over again, “Don’t you think you need to settle down in one place to have lasting relationships and lasting impact on people?” I think it was more an imperative than a question. At first I said I agree, but I really don’t think I do, at least not completely.

Over the past several years I have viewed myself as being in a constant state of transition, yet wherever I go I see my primary role as serving people by loving and encouraging them with the joy of Jesus Christ. I am a messenger. Paul (Biblical scholar and all-around traveling guru) was a messenger. Once he experienced the love and joy of Jesus Christ he traveled far and wide, through storm and calm, suffered lashings and stoning, all to share the news of Jesus Christ. Much of his journey of the soul involved journey by foot. He wrote many letters to encourage and challenge. He longed to visit friends. He loved people from afar – people he had visited with during previous travels. He was a man on the move.

Yes, I absolutely think there is great value in establishing lasting relationships with people. Knowing your neighbors and investing in people over time can be incredibly rewarding and immensely important. However, lasting relationships may not mean that you must live next door, or even in the same city. In the age of high tech communication options there are ways to communicate without being face to face - though face-to-face would always be my first option. Many friends from my past have remained friends in my present, but yes I do often wish that I lived closer to them.

There are people whom have impacted me immensely even though I have known them briefly. Quantity of time does not always mean quality of relationship, yet I openly admit that I long to know and be known, which often involves time spent together.

So for now, I will continue my journey – of foot and soul. There is more than one way to share the love of Jesus. As long as God leads me around country and globe, I will go. Yes, I think someday I should like to settle in some place, at least for a few years, but maybe that will never be God’s plan for me. Maybe I will be the constant traveler. I am never exactly sure where my journey is leading, but I trust in the one directing my steps. I know there are people that God wants me to meet, probably for my benefit more than theirs, and roads along which he desires for me to go. So I will continue along, experiencing the peaks and the valleys. I’ve never been lashed or stoned (and hopefully never will be!), but I have seen storm and calm, and I know there is a journey to which I have been called to go.