[This is extra material to go alongside Chapter 2 to “Travel: in Tandem with God’s Heart” (IVP UK, October 2018). Video content, photos, questions, blog posts and responses will be continually added over time.]
BLOG POSTS that relate to this chapter:
This one is a link to Dan “The Rebel Cyclist”‘s blog who shares of his broken moments. You’ll meet him throughout the book several times – he has an incredible story to tell, I’m sure you’ll agree!
What about when I can’t stomach intentionality in my travels and just need rest, and only rest? Here’s one for you.
On why travel doesn’t restore my faith in humanity fully.
More on “aljabr” and why “beautiful ruins” have stuck with me so much.
Tangential thoughts somewhat related to the chapter:
a. Find labelling everything a ruin, too depressing? Good news. Christianity is the only worldview who allows you to stare into the blackest of black, and still have great reason to hope. So please don’t stop looking into the black – it makes His rescue all the more incredibly bright!
b. I mentioned how our own stories can so often dominate the conversations we’re in, or be the things that we choose to define ourselves by.
That, done for the wrong reason, I said leads to making less of Jesus’ story and more of ourselves. We invert the “He must become greater, I must become less”.
But what does the opposite look like? Some will never mention themselves, will shake their head when you compliment them, and will pride themselves in asking amazing questions to open up conversations about others (and they can be good questions). But this, taken to the extreme is equally problematic. People know nothing about you as a human, because you’re either always asking questions to get others to talk or telling people about an abstract Jesus, when they really just would be more impressed to see what difference He makes in a real human life.
Chapter 6 will explain more of what living for Jesus’ story really looks like. But from this chapter, you’ll tell that our silences, our questions, our stories and even our evangelism, all have their “beautiful” side and their “ruin” side to some extent. But before I’m into another blog post….
c. Travel as an educator
The secular mantra is that travel educates. It’s wonderful because it stops any objective bigotry or thinking we’re better than anyone else. All humans are wonderful….or so the story goes. But much as travel can educate, it can also create the most selfish, absorbed people ever, who have no ambition to truly humble themselves and learn. We’ll meet one of them soon…
Fun video to go withthe chapter:
al-jabr 
Pingback: Missionaries are just adventurers? | al-jabr