InOut by Steph Lentz

Author:Steph Lentz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC Books
Published: 2023-05-24T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

Plans

Returning to work at Covenant Christian School had made one thing abundantly obvious: my time away hadn’t been long enough. Most mornings I dragged myself to school after a night of horrific nightmares, or hungover. I needed an extended break from the demands of working as a teacher. Perched on the edge of my seat in the Deputy Principal’s office, I told her through tears about the breakdown of my marriage, and the dire need to get my mental and physical health back on track. I wanted to return to this job that I loved with renewed energy and focus. Once again, I left out the bit about my sexuality. I needed more time to work that over.

Ever compassionate, she granted my request for a year of unpaid leave. I was desperate to travel to parts of the world that I knew would both challenge me and restore me. It seemed I now had the opportunity to make those plans. During the second half of 2019, my plans for the year ahead began to take shape. I spent my evenings googling the various routes of the Camino de Santiago or researching writing retreats in idyllic coastal hamlets.

Growing up, I’d had the good fortune to spend a lot of time in Europe due to my Luxembourgish father and my parents’ work opportunities in various parts of the Continent. Once I left school, though, it wasn’t long before my friends became more experienced travellers than I was. Lots of my peers went overseas to undertake gap-year programs or simply to see more of the world. I didn’t travel much after finishing high school. Aside from the usual suspects (sex, alcohol and other drugs), travel’s temptations included disconnection from regular Bible teaching and distance from the networks of accountability that church maintained. What was rarely made explicit – but what I now consider to be the main reason Christian leaders are suspicious of travel – is that it exposes the traveller to other people’s lives. This is the very reason so many young adults want to travel: immersion in the many wisdoms of the world that might inform the lives they go on to build.

Of those who didn’t travel straight away, some moved into residential colleges. University itself can be a hotbed of new ideas and concerted rebellion; add to that the booze-soaked parties on offer most nights of the week and it can be pretty much Babylon. A good number of my church friends lost their faith during their undergraduate years. For a devout Christian like me, neither of these options was satisfactory: travel and living on campus were presented as two of the greatest dangers to school-leavers’ faith. There was no way I was going to do either, and I sought to dissuade my Christian friends from booking trips or moving onto campus. When I felt envious of my friends’ adventures and independence, I reminded myself that I was storing up treasures in heaven by staying, investing in relationships with the people in my Bible study group and by sharing the gospel with folks I met at uni.

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