Globe-trekkers and the Elusiveness of Peace and Contentment
One year off for vacation? Really? Yes. The young couple next to me on the van taxi from Cambodia’s capital to our provincial city was on a one-year vacation. They had already been all over South America and were now touring through Asia.
We have met quite a few Europeans vacationing in Cambodia (Tourism continues to boom in Cambodia). Most of the time they explain that they are on a vacation lasting at least a few months long. I cannot imagine having just one month of dedicated vacation time. What luxury is that?!? Yet this couple topped them all — one full year.
When the man first said this, I expressed gratitude on his behalf that he could have such an opportunity. What a wonderful thing it would be to experience so many places and cultures. Imagine having enough time and money to do something like this.
Trekking the Trip of a Lifetime
After our conversation died down and I had some time to reflect (our journey was several hours long), I began to feel sorry for this couple. My thoughts turned to the ultimate lack of contentment they would feel-if they already had not begun to do so. They might have been looking at this trip as “the trip of a lifetime.”
I can imagine after one has been to several countries in a row that travel, cultural differences, hotels, resorts, restaurants, and sites would all begin to merge in one’s mind. One would begin to see that there are ultimately far more similarities between most cultures than differences. What if they began to feel this way a month or two into the trip? They would still have all their upcoming bookings waiting for them with many more miles to go. I concluded in my own mind that such a long recreational trip of constant travel would end up being a kind of torture. Wouldn’t they long for normalcy and home after some point?
Trekking to “Find Yourself”
Some Western tourists come to Southeast Asia with a false understanding of what Buddhism here is all about. They think that Buddhism here is all mystical and somehow can bring them peace and contentment that they cannot find in their own land. They are on a road trip to “find themselves.” Such “self-discovery” trips are very popular, and often done solo. Rarely do these trekkers stop to consider that almost all the Buddhists here live in continual discontentment, peace eluding them, no matter how religious they might be. Meditation techniques, chanting ancient words, and voluntary poverty don’t fill the void. Sometimes, when we see a crowd of monks in a public place, we can spot a Westerner who has become a monk thinking he will find what he is looking for.
Trekking to Sin-Binge
You might think that most tourists come to Southeast Asia because it is exotic or relatively inexpensive, or because the food is so good. But many tourists come to Southeast Asia to sin without social consequences. The expatriate world is one plagued by sexual immorality and perversion, drugs, alcoholism, gambling, and crime of every sort. You can sin to your heart’s “discontent” and then return home. Not all tourists and expats are like this, but many are. For all their indulgence in lust and all-out pursuit of pleasure and instant gratification, they remain unfulfilled. Foreigners are constantly arrested for perversities and criminal activities, some found dead as a result.
Trekking to Make a Difference
There are many social workers and volunteers in Cambodia, too. Not long ago, there were over 1,000 registered charity organizations here. Many of them host foreign volunteers or have short-term foreign staff. They are involved in all kinds of activities. They rescue children or women from sexual exploitation, supply meals to children in village schools, teach foreign languages, provide wells, support orphanages, and promote the protection of endangered animals. Some of these do really hard things and make sacrifices for their cause. Unfortunately, far too many of these aid workers are here to teach Cambodians how to have few children, abort their children, use condoms, and promote LGBTQ and the “woke” agendas.
While good deeds and short-term trips to “make a difference in the world,” “do my part,” and “be a good global citizen” will give some temporary satisfaction, especially in morally upright causes, the moral “high” received from these deeds won’t last long.
Trekking Ultimately Unsatisfying
Whether the foreign tourists or temporary expatriate residents of Cambodia are here for an innocent vacation, doing good deeds, to find themselves, or to sin “with a high hand,” none of these foreigners will find that their trip here will provide them with lasting peace and contentment.
Where is peace and contentment to be found? If these are not to be found in our circumstances, good deeds, gratifying our lusts, experiencing the world, or “finding ourselves,” where can they be found?
Where True Peace and Contentment are Found
In the hours leading up to Christ’s crucifixion, while explaining his upcoming death, Jesus said this to His disciples:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubles or be afraid” (John 14:27).
At this time, He also said,
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
What we can we learn about peace and contentment of soul from these words of Jesus?
- Jesus is the Giver of peace. True lasting peace in the soul can only be found in Him. Peace is not found in religiosity or spiritual experiences, but in Jesus Himself.
- The peace that Jesus gives takes away fear, calms a troubled heart.
- Jesus wants all who believe on Him to experience to know this peace regardless of circumstances in life.
- Because Jesus overcame sin and death through His resurrection, believers will one day overcome all of the pain and suffering in this world too, through Him.
While we will certainly find some joy in helping others and enjoy wonderful experiences we have like vacations, these feelings are momentary. Ultimately, the real thing can come only through Jesus. It begins with being made right with God through what Jesus has done through His life, death, and resurrection on our behalf.
Peace and contentment remain elusive for the masses, for they seek them in all the wrong places. How about you? Globetrotter, have you found peace and contentment in Jesus Christ?
Forrest and Jennifer McPhail minister in Cambodia, a predominantly Buddhist country.
This article first appeared at Rooted Thinking, it is republished by permission.