Temporary Routines in a Temporary Place

The easy excuse

I’ve noticed something about myself. When I travel, my pursuit of Jesus is the first thing to slip.

It’s never a decision. The flight leaves at 6 a.m., so I skip my morning time. The hotel room has no kitchen table, so the Bible stays in the bag. The days are long and the evenings are empty, and by the time I’m home, I’ve gone four or five days on autopilot. The change in venue and patterns made a perfect excuse, and I took it.

Maybe you know the feeling. A business trip, a week of training, a job site in another state, a long weekend away. You won’t be there long enough to build a new life, but you’ll be there long enough to drift.

What you need isn’t a new life. It’s a temporary routine for a temporary place. And it has to be planned before you go, because once you’re there, the excuse will be waiting for you.

Why it’s harder away from home

Temptation travels well. Away from the people who know you, it often hits harder, and the Bible is full of men who found that out.

The prodigal son took his inheritance on “a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living” (Luke 15:13). Nobody in the far country knew his father’s name.

Samson went down to Gaza, a city where no one from home was watching, and gave in to the first temptation he saw (Judges 16:1).

Judah left home for a sheep-shearing trip to Timnah and slept with a woman he took for a prostitute. She turned out to be his own daughter-in-law (Genesis 38).

Even Peter, on the night Jesus was arrested, ended up warming himself at a fire in the high priest’s courtyard, after most of the others had scattered. That’s where he denied Jesus three times (Luke 22:54–62).

The pattern is plain. Away from home, the usual guardrails are gone. Nobody expects you anywhere. Nobody will see your car in the wrong parking lot. You have time, money, and anonymity, which is a dangerous combination for any man.

But the Bible also gives us men who went far from home and stayed faithful. Joseph was alone in Egypt when his master’s wife pursued him day after day. He answered, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9). Daniel was a captive in Babylon, and before the first meal was served, “Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself” (Daniel 1:8).

Notice when they decided. Before the moment came. That’s the whole idea of this article.

Plan around the most important thing first

When I plan a trip, I think about flights, the hotel, the meeting agenda, what to pack, and where to eat. My faith usually doesn’t make the list at all.

But Jesus was asked which commandment is the greatest, and he didn’t hesitate: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39).

If that’s the most important thing in my life at home, it’s the most important thing in a hotel in Chicago too. So it belongs at the top of the trip plan, not squeezed in if there’s time.

Before you book anything else, ask two questions:

• How will I love God on this trip? When will I read, pray, and worship?
• How will I love the people around me? Coworkers, clients, the people serving me, and the family I left at home.

Know your guards and patterns before you leave

At home, a lot of your faithfulness is held up by things you don’t even notice. Your wife is in the next room. Your kids are up early. Your brothers see you Sunday. Your morning routine runs on autopilot because the house runs on a schedule.

On the road, most of that disappears. So take an honest inventory before you go:

• What guards me at home? People, places, schedules, filters on devices. Which of them are coming with me, and which aren’t?
• Where am I usually tempted? Late nights, an empty hotel room, too much screen time, too many drinks with the team, feeling lonely or overlooked. Be specific. You know your weak spots better than anyone.
• What keeps my habits going at home? The chair, the coffee, the time of day. What will stand in for them in a hotel room?

Then replace what you’re losing. If your guard at home is a wife who’d notice, your guard on the road might be a brother who expects a text at 10 p.m. If your morning habit depends on a kitchen table, decide now that the hotel desk is your table this week.

The goal isn’t fear. It’s honesty. A man who knows his patterns can plan around them. A man who pretends he doesn’t have any is the one who gets surprised.

Plan the down time, including worship

The workday usually takes care of itself. It’s the empty hours that get you: the evening after the client dinner, the layover, and especially the weekend stuck between two weeks of work.

Unplanned time doesn’t stay empty. It fills with whatever is easiest, and on the road, the easiest things are rarely the best ones. So plan it before you leave:

• Find a church for Sunday. Look up a few within driving distance and pick one before you go. Worshiping with strangers who love Jesus is one of the best reminders that his family is bigger than your hometown. If you truly can’t get to one, plan to watch your own church’s service at its regular time and sing along, even alone in a hotel room.
• Fill the evenings on purpose. A walk, the gym, a call home, a book you’ve been meaning to read, an early night. Decide which ones before you get there.
• See something good. A long weekend somewhere new can be a gift. A hike, a museum, a ballgame, a local diner. Enjoy the place God put you, and thank him for it.
• Leave a margin at the end of the day. The most dangerous hour is often the last one before sleep, alone, with a screen. Decide when the screen goes off.

Ask for an intentional check-in

On a short trip, you’re not trying to find new brothers. You already have them. You just need to bring them along.

Before you leave, tell a brother or two where you’re going and how long you’ll be gone. Then ask for something specific: a call on Wednesday night, a text each evening, a quick video call on Sunday. Tell them where you’re likely to struggle and ask them to ask about it.

It’s not as good as sitting across the table. But for a few days, it’s enough to remind you that you’re still known, and that someone back home will hear the truth about this week.

If your church has a men’s group or a prayer team, let them know too. And don’t forget your family. A planned call home every night is good for your marriage, and it’s a guard as well.

Pack an analog Bible and journal

If you’re headed somewhere with spotty signal, or no signal at all (a job site, a cabin, a remote training center), bring a paper Bible and a journal. Your phone Bible doesn’t help much when there’s no connection, and an app that also holds email, news, and everything else isn’t the best place to meet God anyway.

Even where the Wi-Fi is fine, a paper Bible on the hotel desk is a quiet reminder every time you walk in the room. And a journal gives you a place to write down what God is showing you, what you’re tempted by, and what you want to tell your brothers when you get home.

For you digital nerds, remember you can always take a picture of the analog page to add to your digital world when you reconnect.

Four more practical things for the road

1. Set up the room the moment you arrive. Before you unpack, take ten minutes to make the room work for you. Put the Bible and journal on the desk. Plug your phone in across the room, not next to the bed. If the TV pushes movies or channels you don’t need, ask the front desk to turn them off, or just unplug it. Small choices made at check-in save you from big ones at midnight.

2. Decide your limits before dinner, not during it. Work trips often come with an expense account, a bar, and a team that wants to stay out late. Decide before you sit down how many drinks you’ll have, and when you’ll head back to your room. Have a simple exit line ready: “I’ve got an early call. See you at breakfast.” Nobody needs a sermon. They just need you to leave on time.

3. Love the people in front of you. The second commandment travels too. Learn the name of the person who cleans your room and leave a generous tip with a note. Thank the server and mean it. Ask a coworker how he’s really doing, and listen. A trip can be a week of being served, or it can be a week of noticing the people God put in your path.

4. Give an account when you get home. The trip isn’t over when the plane lands. Within a day or two, tell your brothers how it went: where you stayed faithful, where you slipped, what you’d do differently next time. Knowing you’ll give that account helps you while you’re away, and the debrief makes the next trip better.

Faithful in a temporary place

A trip is short. It’s tempting to think a few days off the rails don’t matter much. But a lot of men can trace a long slide back to a single trip, and a lot of other men can point to a trip where God met them in an empty hotel room because they showed up to meet him.

The routine will be temporary. The place will be temporary. Your faithfulness doesn’t have to be.

So before your next trip, take fifteen minutes. Write down when you’ll meet with God, where you’ll worship, who will check in on you, and what your guards will be. Pack the Bible. Then go, and come home with a good account to give.