Recently a friend of mine returned from a trip to Israel. During his visit, he noticed a very distinct difference in the way different cultures toured the Holy Land. The three types of tours that stuck out the most were:
1) The African Tour - The Africans would spend hours meditating and praying at each site. They would kneel before the temple mount, lie face down in the garden of Gethsemane, and just sit in stillness for hours. They may only go 2-3 places every day during their visit.
2) The American Tour - Which you are all probably pretty familiar with (although there have been some people from Israel, Turkey, Egypt, and other countries that have visited this blog)...basically the bus pulls up and says, "Everyone meet back here in 1/2 hour". Everyone goes, makes sure they see everything at the site, snap a few pictures, spend a few minutes in meditation and prayer, and they are on their way. They may go to 12-15 places in a day.
3) The Asian Tour - When the Asian tour bus pulls up, you better not blink! The windows of the bus fly down, and you hear, "click, click, click" from all the cameras snapping pictures. They don't get off the bus (too many other sites to see and they can't miss a thing!). So before you know it, they are there and gone. Who knows how many places they might drive by in a day.
My case for the American Way has nothing to do with a tour of Israel, but when I reflect on these cultural differences, I can see how it applies to the Christian life. We must be careful not to be constantly on the African Tour and have our "heads so high in the clouds that we are no earthly good" and spend so much time on ourselves that we miss the command to serve others (1 Peter 4:10-11).
We must also be careful of being constantly on the Asian Tour and focusing so much of our time on "do, do, do/go, go, go" that we neglect our relationship with Him (Mark 6:31). We can make God the one we serve (which is good), but lose Him as our helper (Psalm 63:7), lover (John 3:16), and friend (James 2:23).
You may have noticed I was careful in saying that neither of these tours are bad as long as we are not constantly on them. We may need to jump on the African bus once in a while and take a personal retreat with the primary purpose of refreshment for our souls and nothing but intimate time alone with God. We may also need to jump on the Asian bus at times and do some mission work with the primary purpose of serving. But again, we must be careful not to remain on these tours lest we lose our passion for serving, or lose our passion for our relationship with Him. The American tour has a balance of experiencing (connecting with God) and doing (serving others) which is why I make the case that this is the bus most of our Christian lives should be spent on. Which tour are you on?
USA!!! USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!
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