Most of you who know me, know that I studied abroad while I was in college. I lived in Italy for three months, and it was by far one of the greatest decisions I’ve made in my life. There’s not a day that goes by that something doesn’t remind me of my time of Italian living, or of my best friend/soul mate that I made while over there. It was a three-month stint that put a permanent travel bug inside of me, and left a deep and abiding love of all things Italy, Paris, Switzerland, Greece and Scotland in my heart.

Most of all, though, the trip taught me invaluable lessons, and it continues to teach me things, even all these years later.  So today, I want to share a few of those lessons with you, especially the reasons I think Christianity and studying abroad ought to be similar experiences:

1: You’re permanently out of your comfort zone. 

Be it getting used to an 8 hour time difference or being cramped into a teeny-tiny train car with 5 other people, you get really, really out of your comfort zone. While I was living in Italy, I ate things I never will again, tried things (high ropes course much?!) I never would here, and walked way more than a normal human being would want to. I willingly gave up soft drinks, struck up conversations on trains, stayed in hostels, wandered around foreign, dirty cities, and even got left in a metro station by myself. All things that left me feeling completely uncomfortable about 98% of the time.

As Christians, we ought to feel out of our comfort zones in this carnal, sinful world. When we start getting used to all of the immorality, cursing, immodesty, false teaching, and blasphemy, we aren’t living like the foreigners we are–those whose citizenship is in heaven (Phil.3:20).

2: You don’t speak the same language. 

During our three month stint, the majority of us traveled to at least 10 different countries–I traveled to 13. Of those, 1 spoke English as their primary language. Instead, I was bombarded with French, Italian, German, and Greek. It’s no wonder, then, that I felt completely out of place all the time. The little Italian I actually understood was rarely used in normal conversations, as most people there hardly use the phrase ‘don’t judge me’.

Our world is filled with ungodly language. Colossians 3 gives us a few examples, and why we shouldn’t talk like that: “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,”

As children of God, our lips are to be pure. James tells us that the same mouth we use to bless God with shouldn’t be used to curse our fellow man. If our language sounds anything like the language of the world, it seems we aren’t living like we ought to be. And we definitely aren’t being the lights God would have us to be (Phil. 2:15).

3: Your primary focus is study.

Yes, you’re surrounded by some of the most beautiful places on God’s earth (hello Cinque Terre, Tuscany, Greece!), and overwhelmed by the magnitude of ancient ruins & architecture (Rome, Ephesus, Corinth, Florence), but the real reason you’re there is to study and get credit for your classes. And so, even in the midst of such beauty, you cannot let that distract you from your primary focus: passing your classes!

No doubt God has blessed us tremendously with beautiful and wonderful things to have and experience while we sojourn on this earth of His, but our primary focus is still to study. Paul would write to the young minister Timothy and say, “study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 

While we are surrounded by beauty and technology and family and friends and every good and perfect gift (James 1:17), we cannot let those things distract us from our priority: being approved of God. And to be approved, we have to be in the word.

4: You’re always trying to share what you learned.

While I never really learned a lot about the Italian language, or very many useful phrases, I often found myself trying to incorporate phrases into conversations, or at the very least, convince people that my Ciao was authentic! One day in particular, I met a man on a train and we tried to talk about where we were from. He was from a place in Italy where Brandon Edwards was working as a missionary, and so I tried to tell him about the church there. I didn’t know much, but knew enough to convey that my ‘fratello’ in Christ lived there. And how excited was I to be able to use that!

As Christians, we have to be that way. As we study and soak in knowledge about the scriptures and about God’s plan of salvation, we have to spread that message. We have to excitedly tell others about Jesus and the way He can save them! While we may not know every answer to their Biblical questions, we know enough to communicate the message of salvation, and we can point them in the direction of a spiritual ‘translator’ — aka someone who knows a little more than we may.

It is my prayer that I will use the lessons I learned in Italy for the rest of my life, and hopefully, you will be able to use them, too. And hey, if you ever get the chance to travel, DO! Then let me know some of your experiences, and maybe we can learn a few more lessons!