Converging Landscapes
The view in your rearview mirror is different from what people around you see. You steer the road ahead differently because of where you have just been. Those potholes you encountered give you a keen eye for other potholes on the road ahead. The needs of the people who welcomed you so graciously make you intensely aware of bounty and waste at home. Now that you know the history and political events of the country you visited, you search the road in front of you for current events. You are frustrated when the country you visited appears to be non-existent on the horizon at home. If a story about the country is picked up in the news, you get angry if what you hear seems at odds with your experience.

As you get back into life at home, the effects of the trip linger. You’ve told the stories to friends and family, but the story is not finished for you. One day, as you push your overflowing cart through the grocery store, you remember the daily trips of your host family to their marketplace. The next week you use the two market bags you bought as souvenirs and purchase only what they can hold. As you sing the liturgy in worship, you hear the echo of the village children who led worship during your visit.

Haunting Reflections
Some of the images you see and remember as you glance backward may not be pleasant or welcome. Some of the memories may haunt you and cause you unrest when you return. Even if you don’t look back, there are things that you can’t get out of your mind. The crack of fireworks or the backfiring of a car sounds like gunfire to you now. You say goodnight to your teenager and think of the 10 year-old youth who was left in charge of his four siblings when their parents died of AIDS.

If you do not find a way to put to rest the disturbing memories, guilt or despair can well up and overwhelm you. These deep recollections can be even harder for those around you to understand. You have heard the groaning of creation in a very personal way. You cannot repair or resolve all the brokenness you witnessed on your trip. Neither can you make it go away by immersing yourself in life at home and pretending you never had the experience.

It is important to believe that the Spirit who accompanied you on the journey is with you at home, and that the same Holy Spirit is still with those you met on your journey. You are not personally responsible for all the global ills you observed. Instead, you are part of a church formed out of a love that redeemed the world. God’s love frees you to announce light in the midst of darkness, life in the face of death, challenge in the face of complacency. Even if you cannot summon the words to announce it, you know that the Spirit is at work doing just that. Believing in this work of the Spirit can serve as the bridge between what is behind you and what lies ahead.

Touchstones
The more time passes, the harder it may be to see the images on the road behind you. You need something dangling from the rearview mirror to remind you of the detail in that fading image. At first you remember the taste of a newly picked banana. Now you peel a fresh, unblemished banana from the grocery store and find it vaguely unsatisfying. Once your hands sported calluses from carrying jugs of water from the well each day. Now you have to remind yourself not to let the shower run, that water is too precious to flow wastefully down a drain.

Touchstones in ordinary places can help you stay connected to the stories on the road behind you. A knotted cross worn around your neck, a coffee cup brought from your journey that you use each morning, a photo on your desk – these can be ways to catch a glimpse of the trip as you continue life at home.

Mother Teresa’s Witness
On the other hand, you may find that the more time has passed, the more clearly you feel called to make a U-turn. You may feel compelled to return to the image behind you. You may discover that your soul has found a new home.

Mother Teresa, born in Yugoslavia, found herself called to a home among Calcutta’s homeless and rejected people. Yet, when well-meaning volunteers heard her speak or visited her mission and asked her what they should do to show the love of God like she did, she told them to go home and love their family in that same way.

Mother Teresa understood that the shock of returning home could set some people back on their life’s journey. Others weather the shock and bear witness at home to what they saw abroad. Thus culture shock can be like a friend who tells you that something significant has happened on your journey. Culture shock helps you see more clearly what is important in the experience behind you.

And it guides the way you resume life at home. Now your lingering memories become cherished possessions, gifts of the Spirit for the rest of your life.