This is not a vacation. I am traveling around the world to many cool places and doing a lot of fun things, but it’s still not a vacation. Do you want to know how I realized this? I realized it because it felt like a vacation for the first time yesterday. The feeling, which is already gone, reminded me what it felt like to go on a trip, taking a break from the rest of life for a little while.
We had been camping in the foothills for two weeks, doing various home and church visits, along with time to rest. Yesterday, we returned to Kathmandu to prepare for travel to Central America. While waiting on the microbus for the rest of our people to get on, everything collided to give me the feel of a road trip with friends, perhaps during spring break or summer. A combination of the snack sharing, laughter and high spirits, oddly American music the driver was playing, cool breeze flowing through the windows opposing the hot sun outside, and view of the mountains around made me feel like we were on vacation. Of course, having that realization had to make me question why the rest of the time doesn’t feel like that, even though we’ve talked about it before.
We have talked at training camp and on the trip about how the race is not a break or pause of life; it is a continuation. We don’t put everything back home on hold and come back like nothing happened with us or with them. We should be continuing to grow in our connections back home while focusing on where we are and investing in our lives here. We aren’t here for thrills or for rest. We are here to live, build relationships, and build God’s kingdom. Fun and rest becomes as much a crucial need as they do back home, but not the purpose of the trip.
One big difference between this trip and a vacation is the goodbyes. When you go on vacation, you either go to a new place for fun, or you visit family. The goodbyes for the latter may be difficult, but most of the time you know you will see them again. Now imagine making new family, getting to know them well enough to feel like you’ve known them for years even though they live somewhere else in the world. Go through good times and some bad times with them. Now say goodbye without knowing if you will see them again. Do it again many times over. That’s this trip. And remember that they have to do the same thing, except that they stay and the other people leave.
The goodbyes hurt, but they aren’t a reason to not do this. In fact, goodbyes are beautiful. They mean that there is something for which you have a reason to say goodbye. They are a sign of something good that was, that left a lasting impact. We say goodbye knowing that we grew each other while pursuing Christ, and that he is still with all of us wherever we go.
