366 days to go

2012 is a leap year, so February has an extra day making the total number of days for this year 366. Today, January 10, 2012, marks the beginning of the one year count down until I get to go back to Israel. It's been three years since I was there, and I've wanted to go back since the moment I got home.

It's been a busy three years. I graduated from college,moved to Michigan and back to Ohio; I traveled to Turkey and Greece, I took my first church as a senior pastor, and I got married. It's gone by fast, but I've been waiting for next January for three years.

This time my wife will be going with me, it'll be her first trip out of the country. I'm excited to share this time with her. In the next year we're hoping to learn Hebrew through Rosetta Stone, to be able to enhance the experience by being able to communicate with people in their own language.

I'm so pumped to be going back, even as I talk about it now the excitement is building in me. To be where Jesus was again. To watch the sun rise over the Sea of Galilee, to stand in the Garden of Gethsemane, to walk the Via Dolorosa, to knee at Calvary and praise Him at the empty tomb. I can't wait to smell the scents of Jerusalem again. The memories I have from the last trip are still so fresh in my mind, but in spite of that, I find myself being incredibly open minded.

With the trip to Turkey and Greece I found myself very disappointed. I was expecting it to be like Israel. To have the same feel that the country has, to experience the same revelations as I did. But Turkey and Greece are completely different places. Jesus never walked there, and the feel of the land is different. The mistake I made with that trip was expecting it to be the same as my time in The Holy Land, it wasn't.

But this time, with this trip back, I have once again the simple expectation that I had with the first trip, I'm going to walk where Jesus walked. Honestly, I think that's the point of the trip. Whenever I talk to people about Israel I always tell them if you have the chance to go, go. It will change you, and you will not be the same.

The awe of travel is gone, I've lost the need to take a picture of everything I see, and for that I'm really looking forward to going back. This time I'll be able to soak up so much more, I have background knowledge that allows me to focus on new and different things. And in the coming year I get to review and study as much as possible so that when I get there I can focus on the things that I can't read in a book. I can focus on the land itself.

366 days and counting, I can't wait.

Peace be with you