Wind in my face, eyes closed, I felt the warmth of the African sun as the safari van jumped through the animal park. The way the sunlight was hitting the grass intrigued me. The freedom of the animals roaming the park relaxed me. The view overwhelmed me. There was something about this place that I just enamored me. The sights, the sounds, the music, and the people -- everything was fascinating.
There is just something so addicting and exciting about travel. Our obsession with travel is undeniable. The beauty and flavor of exploring unique places, the freedom of going wherever I want to without responsibilities draws me in. Have you caught the travel bug yet?
I feel like I'm missing out when I hear of my friends' travel stories and experiences. I crave more adventure, more excitement, and more exploration. Almost too quickly, I get bored in one place and look forward to the next opportunity to 'feel alive' again.
But what's the big pull? When I am back home in Canada, things go back to normal. I go to classes, I work, I enjoy my friends, family, and seasonal changes. So why do I want to travel so much when everyone I love and everything I'm familiar with, is here?
Part of me says I want to travel because of the sensation, the freedom, the fresh wind of a new world. There is something so rich, real and deep that you discover when you step outside your borders, beyond yourself.
There is another part of me who thinks that I'll "find myself" if I travel. I start to believe that I will transform into a free and revitalized person if I get out on my own and travel. I think I'll discover who I really am if I leave home. I'll grow up, mature, learn, escape and grasp what makes this planet turn only if I see the sunrise on a different sea.
I feel that I have to experience everything before I'll be able to have an abundant life. I hear myself say "when I travel..." things will be better, different, or exciting again, as if life begins when I leave to explore a new place.
But, is all this just wishful thinking?
This longing to travel, really comes from this need to look for 'something.' Traveling has become the place to find personal change, escape, newness, my place, and myself.
But I've started to notice that returning to everyday life without finding 'it' feels even more meaningless than leaving. Places start to run into each other and I don't even remember all I've seen or heard. It makes me wonder, do we even know what 'it' is that we are searching for? Instead of coming home knowing who we are, we are more unsure about our place in the world.
Aren't we even more confused than ever after returning home? What we thought would give us escape, excitement, and adventure, only magnified the problems that we already had. So, again we long to escape reality. But traveling can't be the answer, because if it offered us fulfillment, we would not have to keep going back again and again to keep looking.
Many people seem to find that whatever problems they left home with follow them to the other side of the globe. When they return home, all the problems and hurts that were there before, still remain undealt with. We all have to face our past and present reality; we can't run forever. There comes a point where no continent can tell us who we are, when places can't determine where we belong, and where distance doesn't heal past wounds.
I have started to wonder if traveling can actually prevent us, rather than enable us, from finding what we go looking for. We start to think that traveling will fulfill us when it was never meant to. The truth about why we are here, who we are, and what we will be does not depend on where we go. The truth about ourselves, by nature of the word truth, does not change no matter how many borders we cross.
What we do find after traveling though, is that we are small and will never see or understand it all we discover that the world is more complex than we thought. We find that there are bigger things than us that we will never be able to conquer. We also discover that there is a freedom that is never fully obtainable in this life because we always have to return to responsibility.
Actually, we discover what we could have discovered right at home -- this world is far too big, we are far too small, and that this world is far too complex for us to be in control. But yet, all of those realizations provide no answers. If we're not in control, who is? Who are we? Why are we here? What is the purpose of life?
In all of my searching, I finally found the solution and I didn't have to go anywhere to find it. I have found that the 'something' bigger than me, the 'author' of all this complexity, the 'holder of my identity, is no one less than the Creator of everything. And, He is not in one place, He can be found anywhere and everywhere. The beautiful landscapes, the creative cultures, and the breath-taking freedom that we get a taste of, all point us to the owner and maker of all of those things.
Although I could celebrate all of the things I see, it is the author who I have been truly curious about. It is not 'something' I am looking for by searching the globe, it is in fact 'someone.' In fact, we are all looking for this someone. We were made that way.
It has become so clear that what I have been looking for in traveling, I have already found! Why would I explore the continent to find out who I am, when I can ask the One who created the continents and created me? It is God who I have been searching for, and He is found everywhere which includes where I am.
The freedom of realizing that I am not alone, that God is with me -- this God who has created this entire world and who is the author of all my life's plans -- is far more incredible than anything I could see, touch, taste, or smell in this world. Getting to know this God, who created me, loves me, and as the creator of life itself holds the key to why I am here, is worth more than any trip somewhere.
If this world is as exciting, adventurous, and exhilarating as everyone says, think of what it means to know the God who created this world! No matter how far you run, no matter where you go around the world, the answer will always be the same and the truth will not change: God is the answer to everything you are looking to find within another border. What you are so intrigued about when traveling, the sights, sounds, cultures, creativity, music has all been inspired by and uniquely crafted by a loving and creative God. All of it was designed to point you to God and God alone.
I will continue to love to explore this world, but it has changed everything knowing the creator of it, and who I am before I leave my borders. I don't need to go anywhere to discover why I am here. All the answers I'm looking for are found in seeking God -- I am completely fulfilled through my relationship with Him. Forget about living for the next time that I will travel because I can enjoy an abundant life today by knowing God. Yes, it's incredible to discover that there is something else out there, someone else out there beyond you," and that someone is God and the something is to know Him.
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