Norma and I are leaving Tuesday for a two week trip. We fly to Spain for 3 days of meetings at Gibralter with our regional directors from Europe, Middle East and Africa. Then we fly from Spain across Asia to Singapore for 3 days of meetings with our Asia-Pacific team.
I have a deep moral conviction against checking luggage. But traveling internationally for 2 weeks with one suitcase and one bag can be challenging. You have to plan carefully for all possible situations and climates. The advantages are no lost luggage, no waiting in long lines, and ease in getting in and out of ground transportation.
Our close friends, Leith and Charlene Anderson, do extensive international travel. No matter how far they travel or how long they're away, they carry one suitcase and one briefcase each. They know the importance of being nimble and light. And now that airlines charge for checking baggage, the case for one-bag is even more compelling
Skye Jethani wrote an article in Leadership magazine entitled “Nothing to Declare (but the Gospel)” He talks about shuffling with his parents through the long immigration lines at Heathrow Airport gazing enviously at the travelers breezing through the “Nothing to Declare” lines.
As we face a challenging year 2009, we may need to learn to travel light. Perhaps we don’t need the baggage we’ve accumulated in ministry business. Effective ministry in 2009 requires us to be lean and agile, without the burden of large facilities, large budgets, or large staff.
This means analyzing everything we do: every association membership, discretionary travel, unnecessary toys, furnishings, equipment. This means focusing on what it vital to the core of our ministry that contributes to the mission and vision of our ministry.
Having all the accoutrements also requires us to manage those resources. And we become so entangled with managing things, we neglect the core of our ministry. We become so pre-occupied with the business of ministry, we forget the God of the ministry.
The writer of Hebrews exhorts us to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles so we can run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Maybe God is calling us to travel light, less baggage, no long lines, having “nothing to declare but the Gospel.”
