Jetlag. Surely jetlag was a product of the Fall of mankind. And surely jetlag won’t exist when we enjoy the new heavens and the new earth. Maybe we’ll just close our eyes, think of a place, and be there. Fully there – not just in body but in mind and spirit. No waking up at 2 am on the new earth because you went to join the Aussie heavenly skydiving team down under (or would it be up over?) Until then jetlag will continue to be the bane of existence for missionaries (and other world travelers). Jetlag and the multiplicity of languages which the Bible assures us is CERTAINLY a product of fallenness!
So yes, as I write, I’m suffering from the out-of-body experience called jetlag having flown from Japan to America just a few days ago. A few days earlier I enjoyed the jetlag-free 100 minute flight from Seoul to Nagoya after finishing up a truly blessed week in Seoul for the Lausanne Biennial Leadership Meeting. Nearly 200 leaders from the Lausanne Board to Cape Town 2010 committees to various Working Group members gathered together from around the world to pray, study the Word, sing, eat, plan, and fellowship together in preparation for Cape Town 2010. There was a distinctly different spirit from our time in Budapest two years ago where at least from my perspective there were many questions and a great deal of uncertainty. Much of our time in Budapest was spent just trying to make sure we were all on the same page. In Seoul that page had become a tapestry with unified themes and varied complementary colors.
Our mornings were spent in manuscript study of Ephesians which will be the book we’ll study in Cape Town. Our Korean hosts went above and beyond the normal standards of hospitality to all of our amazement. A personal highlight was an evening sponsored by Korean World Vision when the World Vision Children’s Choir performed. I don’t think a more beautiful sound has ever entered my ears. Many of the choir members were orphans and abandoned children.
And perhaps the greatest blessing of our time together was simply being together. Despite tremendous technological advancement in our age of video chat and twitter, there’s still no replacing face-to-face being together. As an introvert the 7:30 am to 10 pm schedule was overwhelmingly taxing. But my soul was richly blessed by dozens and dozens of conversations with some of the most wonderful people in the Church of Jesus Christ.
On Friday after our meetings had officially ended, the YLT (Younger Leaders Team) remained behind to have time together and to work on a five-year vision. I’ll write more about that in my next blog entry.
And so by the time you read this entry most of the 200 who gathered in Seoul should be almost over jetlag. I often joke about how I’m never more godly than when I have jetlag, enjoying hours of prayer in the early morning even before the rising of the sun. That jetlag was a small price to pay for the blessings of our time together in Seoul. We look forward to saying the same about the 4000 who will gather in Cape Town next October….