7 Reasons Christians Travel
Inspiration
When I was about 10 years old, my aunt gave me a book about the Civil War. I was interested in history, but the book was very thick and probably written at a level above me. I looked at the pictures. For most of the next 27 years or so, the book took up a space on the shelf; a big space. When I was about 37 years old I visited the Gettysburg battlefield. I knew a little about Gettysburg, I had read the chapter on Gettysburg from that big book to do a report on it during high school. At places like Little Round top, and the spot where Pickett led his infamous charge, it was like seeing the illustrations for a story that I had read. In some ways, I felt that I had already been there. Not in an eerie way, but just that I already knew the story, and now I was seeing it. When I got home, I picked up the now dusty behemoth, started on page one, and read the book cover to cover. Having seen just one of the places in the book inspired me to want to know the whole story.
The first time that I visited Israel, I immediately felt a strange familiarity with the place. I felt the same way that I do when I go back to the neighborhoods where I lived as a child. In Israel, I was seeing the illustrations for the Bible stories that I had heard and read since childhood. When I returned home from that trip, I was inspired to know the whole story. I bought the Bible on CD and listened to the entire story from Genesis to Revelation. Coincidentally, about that time, my church began a several months long teaching series covering all of the stories from the Bible in chronological order.
On that first trip to Israel, our tour guide began by giving everyone a map of the country. Even being the geographer that I am, I set the map aside. I wasn’t driving or navigating; I was on a tour. I was not inspired to study the map and to be honest, it seemed sort of confusing. However, when the tour was over, and I had been to many places around Israel, I found great interest in that map. I was inspired to research and learn more about Israel. Now, I think I could draw a fairly accurate map of Israel from memory. As I sit in church with a map of the holy lands in my head, and illustrations of the stories, the chronological account of the entire Bible story becomes more understandable, interesting, and personal. Having been a teacher for many years, I know how students learn. We retain little of what we are told or read. We retain more when we see it, and we retain the most when we experience it.
The first time that I visited Israel, I immediately felt a strange familiarity with the place. I felt the same way that I do when I go back to the neighborhoods where I lived as a child. In Israel, I was seeing the illustrations for the Bible stories that I had heard and read since childhood. When I returned home from that trip, I was inspired to know the whole story. I bought the Bible on CD and listened to the entire story from Genesis to Revelation. Coincidentally, about that time, my church began a several months long teaching series covering all of the stories from the Bible in chronological order.
On that first trip to Israel, our tour guide began by giving everyone a map of the country. Even being the geographer that I am, I set the map aside. I wasn’t driving or navigating; I was on a tour. I was not inspired to study the map and to be honest, it seemed sort of confusing. However, when the tour was over, and I had been to many places around Israel, I found great interest in that map. I was inspired to research and learn more about Israel. Now, I think I could draw a fairly accurate map of Israel from memory. As I sit in church with a map of the holy lands in my head, and illustrations of the stories, the chronological account of the entire Bible story becomes more understandable, interesting, and personal. Having been a teacher for many years, I know how students learn. We retain little of what we are told or read. We retain more when we see it, and we retain the most when we experience it.