What’s the longest trip you’ve ever taken?
My answer comes at once: three months, six countries, back in the 1980s—Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and the three islands of the United Kingdom. The journey was rich in culture, custom, cuisine, and climate.
Yet beside Moses’ forty years in the wilderness, mine shrinks to almost nothing—in duration, in substance, in purpose. My trip was chosen; theirs was confinement. Mine was for pleasure; theirs for discipline. Mine shaped personal growth; their old generation vanished in the sand.
What divided these two destinies? Faith—or distrust—in God. By faith in Christ, I receive blessing; the rebellious Israelites received curses. Yet even their forty years of confinement was a hidden blessing beneath God’s discipline, paving the way for covenant descendants to the promised land, on earth and into eternity.
Ninety days across six countries was a blessing from above. Experience sharpens knowledge; companions broaden the heart. Life is full of mysteries—seen or unseen, understood or ignored—yet I hold fast to faith, hope, and love in Christ. So whether the trip is longest or shortest matters little, so long as we live in reverent awe of the Almighty Creator.
My ninety-day travel is my longest trip. But the truly longest is the journey of my whole life on earth—and even that is but a note in the eternal realm. Along the way, hard seasons may freeze the world around me; I pray only for the warmth of memory to keep me going.
May the poem below turn our eyes to counting what we have, not what we lack.
“Temperature · Gauge”
Fish and meat—the staff of living.
Leisure—yet called flavourless.
Hardship—and complaint returns.
Leisure comes—too lazy to rest.
Hardship strikes—then longing for rest.
Life has order; young and old must learn.
Every land, every tribe—enter, and follow.
One door, one name—yet each arrives alone.
The road forks quietly; the heart must choose.
Manna in the wilderness, fish and meat in the greenhouse.
Good or bad—if you can live, it is not bad.
…….
en yan hua fang 