Why We Decided to Take this Trip

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.       Matthew 6:19-21

Instruction manuals have always been a stumbling block for me, and even the simplest tasks of assembly, whether it be a bookshelf or a child’s playset, typically melt down into wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Thankfully in the age of the internet, there are Youtube videos and numerous other sources to help amplify instructions or display them from another perspective that make matters clearer.  

We consider the Bible to be an instruction manual for life, and while it generally speaks for itself, sometimes concepts that we might consider simple can become life changing when another perspective provides enough insight to make things click.  Such is the case with the verse I listed above from Matthew’s gospel.  From a quick reading makes sense in that humans need not spend their lives chasing after material goods that eventually end up in the dump or money, which certainly can’t be forwarded to the hereafter.  But what does storing up treasure in heaven really mean, and how does one train his heart to be present with treasure that matters?  

About six years ago, Deena and I read a book by Randy Alcorn called Money, Possessions, and Eternity that changed our perspective on life and altered the direction of our family.  Reading that book gave us a fresh perspective on some simple verses and truth that had been there in front of us all along, but going a little deeper helped us resolve some major issues that helped refine the purpose of our marriage and the way we were raising our children.  Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good,” and western society tends to apply that thought to anyone placing more value on the treasures in heaven than those found on earth, and I couldn’t disagree more.  If valuable treasure in heaven can be gained by actions like raising children to love God, passionately serving our spouses, freely giving money to those in need, building God’s kingdom and increasing His fame, how much more will our efforts be performed with love and excellence considering they have eternal value and are not motivated by just a sense of duty or the desire to look good in front of others.

But we still have to pay the bills, right?  The kids need new shoes, the car has 200,000 miles on it, the dog needs shots, what about the six months of salary savings everyone says we need, what about college?  There’s no easy answer for any of that stuff, and thinking about it keeps a lot of people up at night.  Consider this:

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.          Matthew 6:25-34

Again, these verses are comforting and offer reassurance that God cares about us and doesn’t want us to be concerned about tomorrow, but what does it all really mean?  Jesus says that we shouldn’t be worried or fearful about the things we need right away or in the future because he knows the things we need and gives them to us as we seek his kingdom and righteousness.  What does that mean?  For me, it means that when I wake up to a new day, I will do my best to bring honor and fame to God by loving and serving my wife to the best of my ability, loving and serving my children to the best of my ability, loving and serving my customers to the best of my ability and performing any other task set before me that day to the best of my ability—then be a content and good steward of the things to which I’ve been entrusted. That’s it.  Armed with those verses, one has to choose to use them for partial reassurance during a sleepless night or believe them and stand on them as a solemn promise from the creator of the universe.  We’re all in.

So what does all that have to do with traveling around the world?  Everything.  Deena and I have always done our best to try and live debt free, and we’ve worked hard to be good stewards of our money and resources.  Have we made mistakes?  Yes.  Have we made some bad decisions along the way?  You betcha.  However, in the midst of making a living and making our way in this life, we’ve done our best to do it with eternity in mind and with no regrets.  At some point in their lives, people with kids are confronted with the marble jar.  That's the big glass jar that the pastor places on a stool during a sermon and points at the orange marbles inside and then proclaims:  “These marbles represent the number of Saturdays you have with your children from the time they’re born until the time they typically leave at age eighteen.”  That’s about 940 marbles worth of Saturdays for each kid, and in my daughter’s case, we’re down to 176, and the number for my son is 22—yikes.  When you see a tangible representation of a time-worn concept such as, “When you’re on your deathbed, you won’t regret spending more time at home than you did at the office,” this concept becomes more of an important reality instead of something fun to say at parties.

Deena and I altered our lives many years ago so that we could spend as much time with our children as possible, and it was partly due to my heart disease and the prospect of no Saturdays left if we didn’t change things.  We realized that we wanted to make every day count for something no matter how small, and we wanted no regrets as the sun went down every evening.  Deena and I always enjoyed traveling before we had kids, and we started taking trips with Joseph and Deveny when they were very young, and we’ve had some lively times over the years.  We have wonderful memories of trips in the RV, trips to national parks from Florida to Alaska and everywhere in between, and waking up in tents on camping trips with family and dear friends.  Our family travels very well together, and as a result, we’ve learned how to reach some difficult but worthy destinations, meet challenges on the road, and teach our children about life while their confidence has grown.  

Many people have a goal of traveling after they retire and spend a large part of their lives saving for things like cruises and lengthy trips to Europe, and while these goals are certainly worthy, there’s no guarantee of good health and stamina needed for traveling at any age.  Deena has received much advice from older patients who have told her to travel while our family is young and we have the energy.  As we became more aware of our marble jar draining faster every year, Deena and I decided to take our traveling to the next level and go with our children on a year-long trip around the world.  We knew we would be leaving much behind like church, loved ones, jobs, school, and everything else that provides comfort and identity in a world that is daily growing more unstable.  However, we also knew that we would be removing our children from the pressures and expectations of the American dream for a while.   One the other other hand, we would be beside them to watch their eyes as they beheld Stonehenge, the Colosseum, the Sistine Chapel, the Sea of Galilee, the pyramids, and many other wonderful places.  We knew that we would have many hours of time with no distractions to teach them about the things that are most important in life while seeing real world examples in other cultures.  It’s hard to believe that we’ve been on the road for six months, and it’s amazing to look back on the things we’ve seen and done and the challenges we’ve faced and overcome together.  The marbles may be disappearing rapidly, but we’re making the days together as a family count big time.

We’ve always expected our kids to do well in school in order to honor the Lord with their best work without the pressure of college looming over them during their young lives.  We’ve tried our best to rear them to look for people who are lonely and need help because Lord knows there are a lot of them.  Deena and I worked hard over the years to reduce our debt and going into more big-time debt late in life to pay for college didn’t sit well with us considering that might not even be the path the Lord has for our children.  With the money we made together over the years, we knew if we worked and slaved for hours and saved and invested every penny, there still wouldn’t be enough left over to finance two college educations without going back into debt, so we’ve explored other ways to pull off higher education if one or both children choose to go that route, and we’re using money that we have now to enjoy each other while we have the time together.

So now we’re traveling around the world for a year exploring God’s creation and sharing with our children everything we know about living a life built on trusting the promises of God.  Am I sharing all this to suggest the ultimate blueprint for the life of every family?  By all means no!  In his book, Randy Alcorn talks about the tension that exists daily in every life between deciding how much money to keep for living and how much to give away for the sake of the kingdom.  All of those individual and family decisions are based on determining the path that honors God and brings Him fame in the course of a life devoted to Him and trusting Him to add the things needed to survive in a world that desperately needs Him.  While I don’t know the exact form my treasure in heaven will have, the prospect of seeking it daily is exciting and makes the perceived treasures of this world pale in comparison.  We pray that going around the world with our children for a year will help them on their quest for eternal treasure and that their precious hearts will be there with it also.