The Woman Who Never Visited Paris
The woman who learned French.
Who attended weekly lessons.
Who listened to Duolingo.
Who met other people who wanted to learn French.
Who sat in classes under teachers who taught about France, travel, and the joys of Paris.
Who listened to podcasts about French and Paris.
Who learned how to order food at the cafes and the fancy French restaurants.
….but...who never left America.
The woman who studies French without visiting Paris is like the Christian who never experiences faith.
The journey to France will require time, money, and a lot of study. But, eventually, you gotta go. You’ve read the tutorials, but it’s all wasted without an actual trip.
Because thinking does not equal doing.
You’ll never know what it means generally to travel to Paris unless you go.
And you’ll never know specifically what it means to travel to Paris for you unless you go.
When this woman took classes, there was very little risk involved. But, to travel to another country involves risk—financial, schedule, and the interpersonal risk of messing up the language in the face of a Parisian.
What about you and your faith?
If you don’t have to make it work “in Paris,” you don’t know how to make it work or if it even does.
You’ll neither understand the single nor the double entendres. You’ll never see what was lost in translation unless you go.
The language that’s in your head has to make it to your feet for you to really “know Paris.”
AW Tozer calls faith something you have to “experience.”
If you never visit Paris, you’ll never know the exhilaration of “This is the best!” Nor will you know about the journey and “This is THE LITERAL WORST!” :)
You can’t see the sunrise or smell the smells unless you go to Paris.
And you won’t know the parts that are especially difficult, nor the parts that seem like no big deal unless you go.
Most people know there is something they’re supposed to do. With your faith, you won’t know the richness of all of it until you do.
PS—I’ve never been to Paris. :)