It’s difficult to envision just how enormous distance can be. Mexico City though is a good place to try. It’s the most populous city in North America. That’s right, larger than New York, LA and all the rest. With a population of 9.2 million spread over a 573 square mile area it’s crowded too. It can take well over an hour to get from the airport to some places in the city even when the traffic is good. Unlike an aerial view, when you’re in the congestion of the city you don’t visualize distance – you experience and feel it.
Several years ago I had a decade long season of traveling to Mexico for ministry. Usually it was a road trip from Indiana, where I lived at the time. The travel distance each way was over 2000 miles. I always did these trips with groups I’d lead from the US. But on one occasion, after doing ministry at a US/Mexico boarder town, the group returned and I continued to Mexico City by bus.
Even if you’re young and energetic with a team in your own vehicle it’s a brutal trip. Add being alone and on a bus, overnight with multiple stops and … well lets just say that the Bible verse, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” starts to really apply. Nonetheless, it’s always great to arrive and reconnect with friends.
Once in Mexico City my host, Raul, met me at the bus station. From there we climbed into a crowded public van (his wife was at work with the car) and took a 25 minute transfer to the Colonia where they lived. We walked 8 blocks and I finally arrived – early afternoon.
This was in the early 90’s before mobile phones we’re being used significantly. So, after I made a brief long-distance land line call to family at home, we journeyed out the gate, onto the sidewalks and 15 minutes later joined the rest of my Mexican friends at one of their favorite Jugeria’s – a real authentic juice bar serving real fresh-squeezed fruit juices – – – before they were a franchise concept in the US.
Jugeria photo courtesy Philip Greenspun
It was a popular tienda, as crowded on the inside as the busy sidewalk and congested street were on the outside. My friends were eager to ask questions and catch up on all the latest news all while the noise and activity everywhere played closely in the background. I was talking with them but simultaneously found myself thinking about the call home I had recently made. There at home it was much quieter. Here, a great distance away, it was not. In our daily home routine we rarely consider the masses in distant cities generating an almost surreal energy with perpetual busyness.
OH WOW! ARE YOU OK?
I focused and brought myself back to the table with my friends. We talked and waited for our refreshing drinks to be served. That’s when it happened.
Some call it OBE and Out of Body Experience. It was most certainly brought on by travel fatigue. All I know is that in a split moment I felt afraid and all alone. I looked down for a moment and mumbled, “Oh wow.” I told myself, “Brad, you’re finally here, just relax and enjoy the moment.” But, it wasn’t going away. It was getting worse and like a drowning person gasping for air, I tried to physically ‘do something’ … anything!
It was not a place where I wanted to be – a state of mind which felt uncomfortable. No, actually it was more a state of being that was elusive, unstable and out of my control. And the more I tried to get out of my funk or shake it off the more I realized I couldn’t. It was like being conscious in a frightening dream. What I wanted I couldn’t get. I was surrounded by masses and yet the sense of extreme distance was gripping.
It felt so foreign and yet so overwhelmingly tangible. I remember praying in my mind, “God, please help – right now – please!”
In the distance I could hear one of my friends ask, “Are you ok?” I realized they had all stopped and were staring at me dumbfounded and concerned. “Yeah, just give me a moment,” I replied. A couple of minutes passed at least. By the time the world started to feel close again, the fruit drinks were all on the table.
That was it.
I’ve had a couple of other times where I felt something similar. As you might imagine, I’ve tried to analyze what happened and consider if it was something deeper than low blood sugar, exhaustion and being in a distant place. My understanding of the Bible is that we’re spirit beings.
Was my spirit, in that moment, truly at a distance from the physical world that is familiar? I don’t know.
BUT I DO KNOW THIS
There’s a distance that isn’t measured in miles. It certainly isn’t some out of body experience. It’s a distance of the spirit. It happens when we journey away from God. Much like my unusual moment in Mexico City, distance from God can make us feel uneasy, gasping for air, afraid and all alone. It should. When it does pray, “God, please help – right now – please!”
To the same extent that distance from God is a place where we don’t want to be, closeness in spirit is the place we must pursue. True, it’s only by God’s grace that we can be close to Him. But, it’s our job to thirst for righteousness, know His presence and wherever we go be about his business.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Mexico. Since then I’ve traveled around much of the world. Through those travels I’ve often put a lot of distance between me and home – the place most familiar to me.
The next time and every time you go anywhere, whether it’s a short distance or far, appreciate one of the biggest benefits of travel: going home. Savor every aspect of going home. Knowing that home is ‘home’ is always wonderful. Home is certainly the place where we can be close to family, friends and God. That’s needed, because when we travel we need to stay close to God. We need closeness with God to have help, peace, confidence and purpose in the distance.
God can help you to be strong in His instruction, exercise free-will that chooses righteousness, continually pursue after a divine agenda and resist sin. We are made to be in His presence all the time in all places.
True, close to God is a nice place to be. More importantly it’s where God wants us to be. That’s what we need and where we’re needed. It doesn’t matter if you’re on vacation, traveling for work, serving in ministry, going out for the evening, doing a weekend getaway, attending a meeting or gathering, visiting a friend, simply running an errand or something else. What you need is to know you’re close to God and that God is close to you. In that closeness you are safe, centered and confident. Where your needed is in the presence of God – doing the work of God, among those wherever you are.
Don’t just go. Go where God is. When you do, to go the distance, pray you can stay close to God.
Go further in Christ,
Brad Bloom, Publisher
Listen to this Chris Howland + Austin Sebek song, Keep Me. It’s a great tune that reinforces the message of this Publisher’s Letter. Purchase it to have in the playlist on your devices.
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