My desk is currently cluttered with various currencies, my passport, boarding passes and luggage tags. Yes, it’s time for an overseas trip—which, in my job, happens reasonably regularly.
I guess going to new places, crossing continents and meeting new people all sounds exciting—and, in some ways, it is. But the reality of international ‘business’ travel is that it is tiring, expensive and often lonely. And now I can add one more disadvantage to the list: it’s dangerous! I’m not talking about terrorism or volcanic cloud-induced engine failure; the airline regulators and happy-go-lucky security people seem to have that under control. No, the greatest danger I think I face in my travel is much more spiritual: it’s the danger of greed and discontent.
Advertisers have correctly worked out that people who travel generally have money, and therefore they love to present us with opportunities to spend it. Here in Mexico, the barrage begins when you get in the taxi to go to the airport. A small screen plays a DVD suggesting hotels, holidays and extras for your trip. Once at the airport, of course, it’s a little hard to tell whether you’re in an airport or a shopping centre with departure gates. Then the privileged ‘platinum members’ get a fanfare as they enter the plane first. Don’t you just want one of those platinum cards?
During the flight, the duty free trolley comes around, the in-flight magazines suggest the best places to eat, sleep, play golf, relax and shop, and the movie is preceded by more of the same. When you finally reach your destination, there are more shops, promotions and glossy billboards—often completely out of place, given the poverty you see out the window.
And what is the message this constant assault conveys? You need more. You deserve more. You can buy more, have more and you know you want it. You want to be up the front of the plane, don’t you? You want the chauffeur to meet you and the staff to meet your every need. You want to be somebody—and if you buy this and that, you can be.
This, of course, is a load of rubbish.
Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matt 6:24). When I’m travelling, it’s one of those times when I particularly need to be on my guard about who I’m serving, because the glossy advertisements are inviting me to serve myself rather than God. They are inviting me to have others serve me, rather than to become a servant. They are encouraging me to be discontent and to look for something better, rather than to live a content and secure life under God’s good care.
I suspect wherever you are, dear reader, you too are assaulted by advertising that encourages you to think this way. Please join with me in praying that we will be singularly devoted to our master and that we will be strong, standing up against the culture that discourages this.
I’ll add too the potent ego boost of being so indispensable an employee that your employer is willing to spend thousands on sending you to whatever meeting/event/task lies at the end of the journey.
One of the classic mixed messages of my life involved being sent to the UK for a week for training in a new position, and then finding on my return that there was only enough work to keep me busy for a week every month.
Great post – advertising aside, there’s also the constant opportunities presented to commit the ‘overt’ sins of fornication + adultery, as opposed to the covert sins of greed and covetousness.