Three days in Houston, with the next evening at a business function forced me to be out and away from the home last week much more than I'm really comfortable with. I travel on business perhaps 35% of the time, but I'm fortunate that most of my trips are either north or south and, therefore, afford me the opportunity to stay in the same time zone. In fact, I've got the routine down so that I can usually leave and catch a flight early enough in the morning to arrive at my destination right about the same time as the work day begins for most, and actually return home in time to sit at the dinner table with my family and enjoy a meal together that night.
But when I have to travel east, that's a killer for a lot of reasons. Aside from the fact that I never seem to be able to recuperate from losing a few hours of time (and usually sleep), I'm discombobulated because my routine is thrown off and my familiar surroundings are gone. Most importantly, the necessary and all important influence of family, absorbed and substituted by late night meetings and non-stop thought processes about business, cause my emotional acuity to be jeopardized. As much as I enjoy my vocation, I need my family to provide a healthy perspective to the broad and diverse character of life. I don't live to work, but I must work to live. And as I live, it provides balance to my view of work and deeper, greater meaning to what I do. This past week I heard little good news about the prospects for our economy, the longevity of this current and less than hopeful outlook, and the significant change in course about how we may be forced to live our lives in the future. These messages bombarded me for four to five solid days, all without me really seeing my family face-to-face at anytime throughout. I'm just now starting to recover and regain a clearer vision, but only after being around my family long enough to give me a sense of purpose and genuine hopefulness about tomorrow. All this is, of course, bathed in the everlasting hope of my inheritance in Jesus.
I am so much like Adam in that "It is not good for the man to be alone;" (Genesis 2:18b). I am much more appreciative of my family today than I was one week ago.
It's good be home, and it's good not to be alone,
Tom
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