For love of country

This past week I have been following the "video blogging" of a group from an orange county church touring here in Israel. We don't know any of the people on the trip and have not met up with them, but the site was sent to me by a friend of ours in the states who thought we might be interested. The videos have been well-edited, informative, challenging and fun to watch. I told Ryan that I was tracking the groups travels in order to find out how a Christian tourist is "supposed" to experience Israel. I realized that the more I watched the video and the more I read of their travels, the more depressed I was getting in regards to our own experience here in the Holy Land. Then I came up with my "romance theory" of travel and here it is...

First, there is the "whirlwind romance" travel. You fly in, expecting to be whisked off your feet. All of your normal responsibilities from home are put on hold. You can fully experience the foods, the sights and smells of the cities you visit. You can take time out to reflect on God's beautiful, complicated, vast and awe inspiring world. Here in Israel, people on the whirlwind romance tour, are able to be with friends, enjoy comfortable air conditioned busses and catered meals, great teaching on the life and teachings of Christ and are genuinely impacted for life. They are here long enough to see that Israel is rich in history, to see God's word come to life in a new way, and to perhaps gain refreshment and a new love for God, become Man. This seems to be the experience of this church group whose writings I have been following...and I have to say I am a bit envious! Who doesn't enjoy love in its early stages?

There is a second type of travel that I call the "marriage of longevity" travel. This is where you do your research on a place and you have your eye on it for a long time. By the time you land at the airport, your heart is beating, your palms are sweating and you are already planning to fall in love with whichever country it happens to be. Perhaps you are able to stay a month, maybe a year. You have to dive into the culture and into daily life but for this you were prepared. You might run into some things that aren't so pretty about the place, but you anticipated the bad along with the good. Our friends across the street came to Jerusalem with this method of travel. They hope to stay here for as long as possible while the husband works on his PhD. It might not be the whirlwind romance, but they don't really mind. If they aren't able to see everything there is to see in this year, there will always be the next.

Lastly there is the type of travel that I call the "pre-arranged marriage" of travel. Somehow, without knowing exactly how, you find yourself in a place that you aren't quite sure you have chosen. In fact you don't really know why you are there at all except that "someone" has sent you there. There is very little time to get to know the country because on the first day you are already trying to figure out how to buy groceries and use the public transportation. This is the type of travel I think I have found myself in this year. Instead of stepping off the plane preparing to "fall in love with the Holy Land" all I could think of was the logistics of taking care of three children in a strange land with all my babysitters still in California. Instead of falafel and St. Peter's fish, my normal diet consists of the more practical budget-friendly peanut butter and jelly pitas, and spaghetti with tomato sauce. Instead of sitting on the side of Mt. Carmel and reading the story of Elijah the prophet, I am contemplating for a quick moment before I change a baby's diaper and oohing and ahhing at my 8 year olds rock collection.

I am looking forward to returning to the States in two months, but I am also sad. Not because this has been such a fun year for me, but because it hasn't been. I am not saying that it hasn't been life changing. That it hasn't opened my heart up to my God and to humanity. I am not saying that I am not grateful for this year, or that God's Word is not more alive to me than ever before..it is! In our "pre-arranged marriage" I have found myself both loving, and hating Israel. I have learned secrets that I did not care to know. I have learned more about myself and about this land and that has not been easy. I have a burden in my soul and a heartache that I didn't have before. I have witnessed a hopelessness so deep that I now finally understand that only in God can hope truly be restored. I am sad to have missed the "romance" of travel here. Even if I come again I don't know if that will be possible. Cheers to those who can love this place with no baggage attached. Cheers to the God who loves this place with the baggage...and who teaches us to love as well.