“Travel releases me from my narrow worldview, connects me to others, broadens my understanding of the world and exposes me to growth.” -Edem Dzunu
As we prepare for our Biblical Worldview class with Compassion Corp and orient new interns in Haiti to the process of serving Experience Teams, this quote is a gem in just one of the “whys” we list for Compassion Corp and Experience Teams.
One of the things that hits you as soon as you travel is JUST how deep that self centered flesh goes as you realize how small your corner of the world is. The next thing that you get hit with is a glimpse of the wonder, beauty, and color of a world that God has been inviting you into – the very reason he knows it’s best for you to shed your selfish eyes and ambitions. The world only gets more dazzling, His glory more wonderful.
This is a note we sometimes miss in the face of poverty, guilt, overwhelmed minds at all the news (just today we are sharing on a mass killing in Las Vegas, Mexico’s earthquakes, Puerto Rico’s month of being slammed by hurricanes, more earthquakes across the globe, and a spit in the face of humanity with racism and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar), and the day to day that bogs us down past a global perspective. But y’all….let’s not miss it. Travel – or even being connected to stories of those who are traveling – is an opportunity we have been afforded by God to allow us to learn, grow, and have a perspective that molds and shapes into the biblical worldview He created us to thrive in.
We realize how small our perspective is when we get on the plane and the day to day to do list is able to survive without us for a week.
When the mother shares about her newest baby being sick, and her having nowhere to go, there’s something that happens in our souls that we don’t get to unfeel or unsee.
We spend a prayer service where we understand no literal words being said but we understand deeply in our souls as the Holy Spirit jumps at the passionate worship, the literal dependence, and the cries of both need and joy that are both filled by God. Our prayer lives feel exposed, our horizons expand, our temporary bodies have a glimpse of eternal worship realities.
When it turns out there are other ways of doing life – that can be right, while ours are also right. Who would have thought, for a black and white thinking Westerner?
We have been invited into a beautiful story and a glorious perspective as we align in partnership globally. Let it not be squandered as we are equipped to breathe life with renewed and deepened worldview.
