Epic Journeys

One thing that characterizes my ministry is the amount of travelling I have to do, either back and forth Kota Kinabalu and Namaus or getting to places where I preach. In barely 2 years I have clocked close to 50,000kms. There is no denying that for the patriarchs of the Old Testament, travelling is part of their lives in obedience to God. They led a semi nomadic lives most times and did not settle in one place for too long. Abraham had to make the epic journey from Ur to Canaan not knowing where he was going. Jacob travelled to Haran and back in his epic journey leaving home with only a staff but returning with two companies including his two wives and many possessions. In between Isaac did not travel as much but he was not spared either for in the times of famine he had to live with the Philistines in Gerar, dug many wells from place to place until they found room for themselves. Even if our ministry does not involve much travelling, in a sense life is a series of journeys either in the discovery of self, service to God or ascending to the spiritual heights like Jacob dreaming about angels ascending and descending a ladder between heavens and earth.
Note the word ascend comes first which persuaded some interpreters that the angels are earthly messengers perhaps the patriarchs' alter egos that in their epic journeyings as they travel they ascend to God in their spirituality because by their faith, they obeyed and therefore they went. In Seoul I heard a Jewish exegete who commented that ascend means returning to the promised land and descending means going down to Egpyt with the connotations that they either trust in God in dwelling or returning to the promised land or trust on worldly security of Egypt. For a year now I have lived by faith not drawing a fixed salary as I used to do in the first twenty years of my ministry. Perhaps in my next 20 years of ministry I have to climb the ladder of Jacob and ascend to the heavens trusting solely in a God who dwells in the heavens even as I continue to make my epic journeys on earth.