Kathy Hillman: Are we there yet?

Over the Thanksgiving holidays, continuing through the Christmas season, and extending past New Year’s bowl games, millions of us will travel to celebrate with friends and family.

Kathy HillmanWe pack our bags, gas our vehicles and head down the highway or to the airport. Unless they’re asleep or occupied with headphones, children incessantly inquire, “How much farther?” And with every stop, “Are we there yet?” When Marshall, Michael and Holly were little, I often sang the answer to the tune of “Frère Jacques.”

Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

No, we’re not. No, we’re not.

How much farther is it? How much farther is it?

Not much more. Not much more.

Destination takes priority, no matter the scenery along the way. I’ve always been destination focused, making as few detours as possible and choosing the fastest route available, even in my everyday life. At least I used to be.

In 2004, with help from Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, I realized a lifelong dream of a mission trip to the Olympics. Only in Paris did I realize we weren’t flying directly to Athens. While most of those deplaning headed for Greece, we boarded a flight for Romania and an all-day layover in an un-air-conditioned airport. Worse, on the way back, the travel agency scheduled our ready-to-get-home group for an overnight stay in Bucharest, complete with hours of sight-seeing and reams of mission-tour-guide information. My destination-oriented personality chafed.

Alina Urs of Bucharest, Romania, a visiting Keston Center researcher, picked up some Texas culture on horseback. (Photos of Alina Urs used by permission)Fast forward to 2013. A 20-something scholar from Bucharest travels to Waco as a Keston Center researcher, and I’m one of her hosts. Oh, how I wished I had paid more attention to the journey. What did we see? Where did we go? What do I remember? Not much.

Alina Urs graciously and patiently reminded me about her country and her city. A devout Christian, she spent Thanksgiving 2013 with our family and became a good friend. In 2014, she returned for a second visit. This fall, she gave a public lecture on faith and gender in post-communist countries, spoke to 5th and 6th grade Girls in Action (GAs) at my church, and once again joined us for Thanksgiving.

Alina taught me the importance of the journey, something my husband, John, has known for a long time. He recently met McLennan Community College students Alice and Marketa from Prague in yoga class. During the holidays, he arranged for us to take them for Mexican food and share his from-scratch banana pudding in our home before they returned to the Czech Republic at the end of the semester.

Alina Urs returned this fall to deliver a lecture on faith and gender in post-communist countries.God has blessed Texas with a wealth of international visitors. For most, the United States is merely part of their journey and not their ultimate destination. Some bring spouses and children with them. They eventually return home to live and to work.

Numerous ones, like those outlined in the Washington Times article “Armed with U.S. Education, Many Leaders Take on the World” (Aug. 19, 2012), will hold positions of leadership and power. Several years ago, the U.S. State Department created a list of “Foreign Students Yesterday, World Leaders Today” that included more than 125 names.

Sadly, many never receive an invitation to enjoy a meal or share a holiday in an American home. Others, like an Iranian student at Texas A&M and a Chinese student at the University of Texas, are touched through Baptist Student Ministries, international student adoption programs or church ministries. Some, like my husband’s new yoga friends, meet Christians through divine encounters on their journeys.

We simply have to focus as much on our journeys as on our destinations. After all, that’s what Jesus did. Even after he made it “clear to his disciples that it was now necessary for him to go to Jerusalem” (Matthew 16:21), Jesus knew the importance of the journey. And that made all the difference in the lives of the little children, blind Bartimaeus, a crippled woman, Zacchaeus, and countless others touched by the 72 he sent out.

Christ understood it wasn’t either/or. It was and is for us both the journey and the destination. And we aren’t there yet until we have opened our hearts and our homes to those the heavenly Father places in our paths.

Kathy Hillman is president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. She also is director of Baptist collections, library advancement and the Keston Center for Religion, Politics and Society at Baylor University.