“Where could you travel over and over again?”
I got that question via email from Storyworth, an online service that sends me a question every week to share the story of my life.
The idea is that I’ll share enough short snippets to be bound into a book for my grandchildren.
I’ve been blessed to do a lot of traveling in my life. Not as much as some. Way more than others.
There are a few destinations to which I’ve made multiple trips, primarily because of a ministry connection of some kind.
The truth is that I simply love to travel and my favorite part of travel (besides eating) is being outside in nature.
A place with lush vegetation, breathtaking views, and cool streams where I can hike, explore, and contemplate—this nurtures my soul.
In fact, I’m sitting on a bench in a park right now—enjoying a shade tree and a cool breeze as I compose this post on my iPhone.
Today I needed to get out of the house, the office, and the car and get a breath of fresh air (literally and metaphorically).
I don’t do it often enough.
You probably don’t either
There’s so much to do. So many pressures, challenges, and responsibilities. So many distractions, disappointments, uncertainties, and conflicts.
Dare I suggest that there are too few breaths of fresh air in most of our lives?
I thought about that early this morning as I read from Philippians chapter 2.
Some selected verses really hit home for me today.
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Philippians 2:3-4).
It’s so easy to be internally focused—me first, mine first.
I know I’ve read those verses hundreds of time, but a word hit me unexpectedly today: “the”
“Not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of THE others.”
Not generically and vaguely the interests of “others” but “the others.”
Real people with names and faces.
The ones you literally interact with on a regular basis.
It’s one thing to say “I care about others.”
It’s another thing to say I’m committed to the well-being and interests of John, Sally, Lorenzo, Lizzie, Achmed …
“The” others.
And that perspective, then, calls upon me to behave in a certain way.
“Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society” (Philippians 2:14-15, The Message).
This question occurred to me:
What if we decided TODAY to BE the breath of fresh air we want to experience?
What if we were to live intentionally as those who speak life, vitality, and refreshment into everyone with whom we come in contact?
Be the breath of fresh air and be amazing today, my friend.
