Just Touring?

Editorials and Columns

February 14th, 2026

EVERYDAY FAITH

 In 2017, we decided as a family to take a trip up to Alaska for about six weeks in total - not by plane or by cruise, but to drive there and camp anywhere the roads would take us, which for Alaska is only about a ⅓ of the state.  

    To get from Alpena to Anchorage takes about 60 hours of driving, so 12 hours a day of driving would take five days in a row, or if you went 10 hours a day, it would take six days in a row.  So, one of the first things in driving was to determine how much we wanted to push it.

      Our plan was to drive 30 hours straight through and put ourselves just on the other side of Calgary in the Canadian Rocky Mountains at Canmore. We would take a day to rest, and then start back up, driving the rest of the way, 10-12 hours a day.  Our theory was we wanted to spend as little time en route to Alaska as possible, so that we could have more days spent ‘in’ Alaska.

     We loaded up the Silverado and headed out to execute our plan.  One of the conversation pieces that we had along the way, because we had ‘a lot’ of time to talk, was that we wanted to arrive in Alaska in time for the 4th of July.  The 4th is my daughter’s favorite holiday of the  year, so we wanted to make a family memory and get somewhere in Alaska where we could watch the 4th of July fireworks - preferably in a port city on the ocean.  We left near the end of June, so we figured that the goal was certainly doable.

     Sure enough, we arrived in Tok (like Coke) and then Glenallen on July 3rd.  We drove past several moose on the way into our first campground in Alaska, and were excited to get the adventure started.  Since Glenallen was close to Valdez, we decided that we would go there for the 4th of July.  The next day, we drove up over Thompson’s Pass, which annually gets the most amount of snow on average of any place in the United States, and then down to the port of Valdez - an absolutely stunning drive!

     When we arrived in town, we looked for a calendar of events for the day, and sure enough, we found fliers posted around town.  The first thing on the agenda was their 4th of July parade, highlighted by shaking hands with Uncle Salmon - celebrating the local salmon industry, as well as our national heritage. It was great.  

     There was a free community barbeque where we were able to eat lunch. We watched a canoe jousting event on a pond and then a free movie that afternoon.  

     As we headed into the evening hours, we decided to take a look at what time the fireworks’ show would kick off, and much to our surprise, we simply couldn’t find fireworks at any time or day of all the events.  We decided to ask someone when the fireworks kicked off, and when we did, we got a very puzzled look in response to our question.

    You see, as tourists, we had forgotten that in the land of The Midnight Sun, it never really got dark that time of year - ever. 

     “We don’t do fireworks here. It’s not dark enough to see them.”

     Trying not to look too foolish, we just continued on with the rest of the events and enjoyed our day in Valdez, but our ‘fireworks problem’ had nothing to do with our intelligence level - it had everything to do with our lack of understanding, because we were just visiting.  We were tourists. 

     In studying the Bible, there are a lot of layers to it, and it takes time to figure things out - Old Testament, New Testament, minor prophets, major prophets, gospels, epistles, the Pentateuch, the law, the gospels etc.  There’s no way that a person can understand the Bible at a casual glance. If you truly want to know what the Bible has to say, you have to become a resident.  That means, you’ve got to put your roots down and spend time living there.  Once you do that, gradually, God’s word will begin to reveal itself to you, and the picture and storyline of the Bible will become clearer and clearer and clearer.  

     But, what I’ve discovered the last couple of years is that studying the Bible - book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse is an amazing way to read through scripture.  You see, most people bounce all over the Bible - a couple verses here, a couple verses there - a book here, a book there, and what’s lost is continuity and context.  

     God’s story is all throughout the Bible, and there are specific messages and themes that are revealed, but it  takes understanding that the Old Testament complements the New Testament, and that it is one continuous story from beginning to end. To bounce around, picking up a piece here and there is good, but to read the Bible with a broader context really helps to bring the story together.  And another benefit is that nothing ever gets skipped.  Every issue that God wants us to think through will be revealed in front of our eyes.  

     I’m nowhere close to understanding all facets of the Bible.  I’ve got a long way to go, but I can tell you that going through the entire Bible verse by verse provides a much more complete perspective than any other way I’ve ever studied before. 

     For some people, all they care about is if they are going to ‘get into’ heaven.  They don’t ever really think about the ‘eternity’ of living there.  

      Being a tourist can be pretty fun, but when we’re talking about the implications of ‘eternity’ as to how it relates to our souls, taking up residence in the Bible seems like a much better place to reside than just passing through it casually, not really understanding what’s going on. 

     If you get a chance, try checking out a ‘Through the Bible’ reading program.  It might be an incredible challenge for you to take on, but the rewards of doing it will be incredible too.