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All good trips are like love, says travel writer Pico Iyer, because they "admit us to a heightened state of awareness … ready to be transformed." Travel is about being carried out of yourself and deposited in the midst of terror and wonder. Stepping into unfamiliar territory shakes your stereotypes, rattles your defenses, and redefines your paradigms.
I've found this to be true in my life. As a young believer, I took my first solo trip right after college and spent two years working my way across Europe and the Middle East. I worked for room and board in a home for cast-off people in England, a B&B in Austria, a peanut farm in Israel, and a Jesus-people barn in Bavaria. By the time I returned home, I'd smuggled Bibles behind the Iron Curtain, been pelted with stones by boys in Gaza, endured endless nights sleeping on cold trains, and swum with a shark in the Red Sea. I learned I was more resourceful than I knew. But most important, I found God present in the most unlikely moments, and I've learned to watch for his wonderful surprises showing up in my life ever since.
Even now, as a mother of three adult daughters and as someone who lives on a budget, I find travel continues to play a pivotal role in my spiritual development and life choices. Not long ago, I camped with a group in the Pacific Northwest, and part of our itinerary included kayaking. Pulling on the oars with all my might wasn't enough to keep my kayak on course. As my straying vessel was pulled toward open sea, I thought of the aching lament I'd prayed many times during my divorce: "Oh Lord, your sea is so big and my boat so small." Much to my humiliation, the guide had to rescue me, towing me back to shore. Coming face to face with my vulnerability that day was another lesson in compassion for others adrift in shame or loss. The emotional impact of that traveling experience motivated me to train as a life coach, to help guide people through the crosscurrents of their lives.
So issue an invitation to yourself. Challenge the everydayness of the familiar. Take a trip. Go somewhere. Go anywhere. Go where nothing matters but the adventure itself.
Women Lead the WayThe travel industry tells us women make 70 percent of all travel decisions and compose 75 percent of those who take nature, risky, physical adventure, or cultural trips. In fact, the average adventure traveler is a 47-year-old female who wears a size-12 dress! So what else is new? The Bible and Christian history are full of tales of women and their experiences on the road—Hagar, Ruth, and Mary, to name a few. During the Middle Ages, women made up the largest contingent of visitors to sacred sites. In fact, it was a woman who later created a prototype for pilgrim lodgings as places of spiritual and personal growth.
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