Spence Smith

Here you go friends. My first guest post comes from my new friend, Jeff Goins. Jeff and I share a love for travel and adventure so I asked him to write ‘How Traveling Changed My Worldview”… or his worldview actually. Something else I really like about Jeff is his ability to write and engage people in conversation. ENJOY!!!

When I was in college, I didn’t even know what a worldview was… until my Junior year. Then, everything changed.

First, I left home. Not like mom-and-dad’s “home.” Like, real home. Comfort. Stability. Predictability.

My best friend and I packed up his pickup truck and drove 18 hours from central Illinois to the “hill country” of Texas.

We spent the summer as camp counselors at a ranch just outside of Austin. From that experience, we learned that Texans are very passionate about, well, Texas. And we taught them that the “s” in Illinois is, in fact, silent.

This was only the beginning, though, of our cross-cultural adventures.

Immediately following that summer, we repacked our bags and took a flight across the Atlantic Ocean to Spain, where we spent the next four months studying in Seville. That semester, we learned as much from our professors as we did from the regulars at the nearby flamenco bar.

After Spain, I was never the same. I discovered a new and beautiful word that would haunt me for the rest of my adulthood: wanderlust. I was plagued with this insatiable hunger for new. New cultures, new languages, new food and new customs.

Well, at least… new to me.

I learned to love the world and the vehicle that allowed me to see it — travel. From there, I was eventually led to the mission field and have spent the past six years mobilizing others to get involved in what’s happening around the world.

I think everyone should travel. Seeing the world has made me a better person, through and through — making me more tolerant, introspective, and flexible.

Traveling Makes You More Tolerant (and Humble)
Sometimes, it takes a trip to the other side of the world to show you that not everyone is like you. It’s humbling.

When I was in Spain, I very quickly learned that Americans were not venerated everywhere (especially at a time when George W. Bush was responsible for sending more troops — some of which were Spanish — into Iraq).

Traveling Makes You More Introspective (and Spiritual)
I don’t know what it is about the lulling motion of a train ride across Europe or the peaceful flight over the Caribbean, but travel does something inexplicable to your soul.

It causes me to think thoughts I don’t usually think. It allows my spirit to go to places it doesn’t often go.

It only took 15 days in Mexico to change nearly everything I thought about God, miracles, and the spiritual realm.

It’s a long story to tell, so let’s just say this — somewhere in the southern state of Chiapas is an older man who was once paralyzed and can now dance jigs (or, you know, the Mexican equivalent).

Traveling Makes You More Flexible
All it takes is a week, maybe even a day, in another culture to realize that America does, in fact, “run on Dunkin.”

Our time-obsessed, productivity-driven, hyper-caffeinated culture is, at least in some respects, missing out on the finer things of life — particularly, waiting.

Life in the Southern hemisphere is especially known for its slower pace of life. In Africa, I’m told, they have gradations of the word “now” (none of which are synonymous with the immediacy the word tends to have in the U.S.).

Time, food, and customs tend to disabuse us of our cultural prejudices more than anything else. In Spain, I once waited to have coffee with a man for nearly 45 minutes. He showed up, without apology or excuse. That’s just how things work there. No rush, no hurry. no pasa nada.

As I’ve traveled to various countries, I’ve learned the importance of learning to be flexible (because you have to be), and it’s a gift I’ve been able to, on occasion, give back to my culture.

Like I said, I think we all should experience the world.

We’re missing out on amazing customs and culture, traditions that would enrich some of our lives so much more than iPads and laptops and plasma screens are able.

How has traveling challenged you worldview?

Or, where would you travel to, if you could go anywhere?

Bio: Jeff Goins blogs at Goins, Writer and works for Adventures in Missions, a short-term missions organization based in Georgia.

You can follow him on Twitter @JeffGoins

This past week I was in Spain and Italy with this guy. I have a few things to say about the week in other posts but for now I want to tell you about some observations on the subject of Love.

Last week while on a run around Barcelona I saw something that made me stop and just watch. It was an elderly couple sitting on a park bench talking. Not just having a conversation, but talking and looking at each other as if no one else mattered… Their body language said, “We are in love and always have been… for the past 50 or 60 years.” I didn’t see this once but I saw it multiple times. I stopped and just watched and wondered what they were talking about. What is it about them that make their love so lasting?

Of course… I don’t know anything about these people I saw. They could be going through hard times for all I know, but for the moment I experienced I saw love in the purest form.

I imagined these couples as friends, best friends, lovers, parents, companions… enjoying life as it happens with the good and the bad.

At the end of the day the couple sits on a park bench… the man with an arm around his bride looking off into the distance gazing at the years behind and loving the moment at hand… as almost if they sat there basking in the thought… we’ve made it and we’re still going.

You see… sometimes I look around and feel like we miss that moment. We get caught up in it all and the moment passes as miss the focus… each other.

I think since going through my divorce I look at love a little differently. Love is not a mythical feeling but a real emotion – a living and growing life.

Love is the one thing couples can have together that is only for them. It’s their special way to be in each other’s lives completely. It’s that bond that won’t be broken if always paid attention too and put at the top of relational priorities.

Love is deep. I look forward to the day where I can be married again, sit with my bride on a park bench, as we grow old together and still be in love.

We’ve all said it at some point… I want to grow old with someone. But do you really believe that? I do. I’ve seen old couples sitting on a park bench sharing the warmth of the day’s sun with each other. There’s a security there…

So love… is it worth it? Yes. Can it be found? I believe it can. Can you grow old with some one? Absolutely. Can you be in love after all these years? Yes… it’s worth the journey.

Love is never lost; it’s just there waiting for the right combination of people to discover it.

In all the years of traveling to spanish speaking countries, this is the first time my name has ever been translated to Spend Fish. I’ve heard of language barriers but I guess the guy never looked at my name on paper but only wrote down what he heard on the phone as he was told who is was picking up.

This morning when I arrived in Barcelona I met up with one of Michael W. Smith’s daughters, Anna. She was flying in on another airline. Michael’s road manager, Joey, arranged Anna and I to have a a car service to where we are all staying which is on the beach just north of Barcelona.

Anna and I flew in at the same time, got our luggage and out the exit we went looking for a guy holding a sign with at the very least the last name we both share. No… I’m not related to Michael, but I’m sure somewhere down the line of Smith’s we connect at some odd point.

As we walked out the sign above is what we saw. I looked at Anna… she looked at me.. we both smiled and shrugged Oh Well… You can’t win ‘em all.

As the drive progressed I just kept laughing to myself and saying it in my head… Spend Fish… Spend Fish. You know if you say it super fast it sounds almost like Spence Smith with a spanish accent.

Ok… go ahead… you try it now.:)

Have a great day my friends… I’m off to write then visit with friends I haven’t seen in a while as we take in the view.