{"id":423,"date":"2010-08-26T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2010-08-26T08:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=423"},"modified":"2010-08-23T23:01:18","modified_gmt":"2010-08-23T23:01:18","slug":"south_africa_journal_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2010\/08\/26\/south_africa_journal_2\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa Journal 2: Never Mind My Luggage; Has Anyone Seen My Character?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s an expression that says, \u201cCharacter is what you reveal when you think nobody is watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott\u2019s corollary to this is that \u201cCharacter is particularly revealed when you are traveling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"I have seen airport security lines, Customs and Immigration queues, and waits at baggage carousels reveal some of the most self-centred, boorish and obnoxious behavior known to human-kind.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m not above finding the worst aspects of my own character bubble to the surface when I travel.<\/p>\n

Today I\u2019m en route from my home in Kelowna, BC, via London, England, to Johannesburg, South Africa. There I\u2019ll be joined by four Canadian pastors and our hosts from World Vision<\/a>. My friends at World Vision will be guiding us through the work they are doing in some of the most desperately needy regions of this beautiful country.<\/p>\n

Total travel time will be over 30 hours, 21 hours in the air. That\u2019s plenty of time for the basest parts of my character to emerge. I know myself well enough to envision my own impatience spilling out in the form of sarcasm, glaring looks, even an audible \u201cThis is ridiculous!<\/em>\u201d as an interminably slow line crawl along. I can even imagine myself muttering, \u201cDon\u2019t these people understand that I\u2019m trying to get to a part of the world where I can be the hands and feet of Jesus?! Let\u2019s MOVE IT people!\u201d<\/p>\n

May God grant me the grace to realize that perhaps those for whom He wants me to be his hands and feet are right here in this slow moving airport line. Perhaps the blessing I am to be is to the scowling agent at the counter; the one who has received nothing but abuse from unruly passengers all day.<\/p>\n

Less than a century ago this journey would have taken 6 months to a year to complete. Now, I\u2019ll be at my destination in mere hours. May I be less concerned that my luggage has survived intact, and more focused on seeing my character survive the journey.<\/p>\n

In what circumstances do you find your character is put to the test?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do you ensure your character passes these tests?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s an expression that says, \u201cCharacter is what you reveal when you think nobody is watching.\u201d Scott\u2019s corollary to this is that \u201cCharacter is particularly revealed when you are traveling.\u201d I have seen airport security lines, Customs and Immigration queues, and waits at baggage carousels reveal some of the most self-centred, boorish and obnoxious behavior…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,6,7,8,12],"tags":[20,299,296,298,297,84,294],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action","category-discipline2","category-joy","category-leadership","category-missional","category-tension","tag-character","tag-character-is-revealed","tag-put-to-the-test","tag-the-blessing-i-am-to-be","tag-the-journey","tag-travel","tag-world-vision"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":430,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions\/430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}