Now you might or might not have been aware of the dangers
associated with traveling alone. There
are the obvious issues of personal safety.
After spending a few years in the Marines I was sure that I could take
care of myself. Not from the normal
sense of bravado that Marines get issued to them during boot camp.
That is just as stupid as drinking alone in a
hotel bar. All it takes is one maniac
with a gun to reduce my bravado to waking up on my back in a hospital wondering
what happened. My sense of security
comes from not putting myself in dangerous situations on the road. I avoid dark alleys, I carry my keys in my
hand with my finger on the panic button, I lock and double check the hotel room
door, I never ever open the door to my hotel room if someone comes to the door,
and I always give myself a way out when traveling in traffic. That same over confident bravado used in my marriage makes me vulnerable to waking up in a hotel room with a stranger wondering what happened. Ed Young my pastor said it best in a series
titled “Love Affair”. The first thing you
do to ensure that you will have an affair is to say “It will never happen to
me”. If you truly believe that you will
never have an affair or do something stupid in a moment of weakness you are
putting yourself at risk. This article
is not just about having an affair on the road.
There are lots of potential pit falls when on the road, over drinking
can be an issue. My Dad seems to think
that consistent drinking is just as dangerous.
Strip clubs seem like the place to be for the traveling man on the road. Pornography has become just a click
away. What is a Christian to do?
My plan has always been simple, idle hands are the devils
playground. So I keep busy. Since I am traveling to different places all
the time I like to go for a drive in the evenings.
I used to get the rental car with the built
in GPS but my Dad bought me a GPS antenna for my laptop so I don’t need to
spend 6 bucks a day for that feature anymore.
I program in the hotels location as soon as I get into the car at the
rental location. This helps me get to
the hotel quickly in an unfamiliar city.
But once it is in there it allows me to “drive by the Holy Spirit”. I really enjoy wandering. Someday I am going to get a bumper sticker
that says “Not all people that wander are lost”. The pictures above are of my off road experiences in Palm Springs and Reno Nevada. That is Lambeau Field in Green Bay on the bottom. I always apologize to my rental car when they give me a 4X4 vehicle. There is no wandering like really getting off the beaten path.
On a recent trip to Fellowship United
Methodist Church in Tennessee they mentioned that they had a camp coming up
that was 30 miles south of the church in the Smokey Mountains. I took this to mean that the Holy Spirit
wanted me to go south. So I got general
directions and took off at the end of the day.
Tennessee is not like Texas, there are no straight roads running north
and south. So this trip immediately
turned into a wanderfest. If I see a
road that looks interesting I go that direction. If I come to a fork in the road I take the
road least traveled. I ended up finding
a state park called The Old Stone Fort. I
had a terrific hike, found a beautiful waterfall, and spent 30 minutes talking
to God.
My oldest was sick at the time
so I was begging God to heal him. I was
bargaining, pleading, and crying. I
ended up getting a phone call from a church in Phoenix and took it as a sign to
stop praying. I then finished my hike walking
"Mark the Web" guy through setting up small groups online. I made him promise that he would call the
police if I heard banjo’s playing in the background because I was way way off
the grid and it was getting dark. This
is when the GPS comes in handy because I had no idea where I was or more importantly
where my hotel was. The other part of my
simple plan is finding the local movie theater.
I watch a movie until it gets late and then I head back to the
hotel. I spend a few hours in the late
evening catching up on emails and then I hit the rack. (Marine speak for going to bed)
How sad would it be to say that I have spent the last 3 years traveling across the US visiting the most interesting people and places and all I could show for it was knowing what the inside of my hotel looks like.
I have friends that travel like that and it is pathetic. They get burned out quicker and start to wonder why they work and travel so much. I guess the most important thing I could pass along is that it is all about balance. God has a plan for my life. He has placed me at Fellowship Technologies to do His work. That does not mean at the expense of my wife and family. I tend to pour myself into my work and I have a hard time saying no to anything. That means I take on more than I should and everyone suffers. My managers help me to balance this by giving me the authority to say no... or at least not now. My wife also helps me with this balance by letting me know in no uncertain terms when I begin traveling too much. One phone call in particular comes to mind. After being on the road for 8 weeks straight I got a call from my lovely bride that said "If you don't get home soon your kids might not be here when you get back." We have introduced practices to keep it from getting that bad in the future.
By keeping work and life balanced, keeping myself safe on the road, and protecting my marriage by being deliberate in my actions I find travel to be something I look forward to most of the time.