If you’ve ever been in one of our Ignite conferences, you’ve heard me tell about a trip that Vickie and I made to Romania. Let me set the scene for this trip. This trip was pre-9/11. The traveling rules were quite different. We were allowed 3 bags each with each bag weighing up to 70 pounds. This trip was made before luggage had wheels. You have the picture. Two travelers. Six pieces of very heavy luggage. Too much luggage for just two people. It was a comedy in the making!
Our travel agent, Joanne, booked our flight reservations and made it possible for us to spend a night in London on the way to Romania. Upon arriving in London, Vickie and I secured our luggage, used the airport carts to transport the luggage to the bus, and then rode the bus to the closest drop-off spot to our hotel. Much to our surprise, the closest spot wasn’t close at all. It was blocks away. Are you picturing this? For blocks, Vickie and I inched our way to the hotel. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
What caused this fiasco? Joanne had no idea about how children’s ministry workers travel. We carry a ton of props to use in our meetings and leave behind for the local teachers. Joanne also was sending us to a place she had never been. She had no idea of the great distance between the bus stop and hotel. Her lack of knowledge caused us major frustration.
I use this story to teach that God has called us to be tour guides, not travel agents. What is the difference between the two? A travel agent will send people to a place where they’ve never been. A tour guide knows the trip and accompanies the people, pointing out the sites along they way.
As children’s ministry leaders, we can’t afford to have travel agent mentality. We can’t try to send our children to a place we’ve never been to experience things of the Spirit that we’ve never experienced. Instead, because of our passion for things of the Spirit, as tour guides we can echo the psalmist David when he said, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” because we’ve tasted and experienced the joy of being in His presence.
Make time to enjoy being in His presence. Find time to lose yourself in Him. Pull away from the day-to-day routine of life so that you can see sights that you’ve never seen, taste the fruit of heaven about which you’ve only read. Then, let’s take our children to these places to experience the taste of heaven. Let’s be tour guides of the Spirit!
