Possibly one of the most significant challenges that I faced when I took the National Presenter role at Faithlife was the impact of travel on my family. As I am reviewing the past year I just hit the 150,000 air mile mark which means my office is really an airplane. As a youth pastor, I have seen the impact of absent fathers. Kids that are craving for the attention of their parent who is chronically missing events and is preoccupied with work. Now, to be fair, the issue is prevalent for both the parent that travels and is physically absent as well as the one who is obsessed with the office and is consistently emotionally and mentally absent. In my circumstance, I find myself physically absent at various times throughout the year. Seeing the affect that the absentee parent has on kids has caused me to be incredibly cautious about my travel and to intentionally pursue being “dadda” while on the road. The following are four things that I pursue to make this happen. I hope they are encouraging for those of you that travel.

1. Facetime

I love FaceTime. It is incredible and allows me to see my kids even when I was across the pond in London earlier this year for the Worship Central Conference. I love having breakfast together with my boys via FaceTime. I have my iPad up and headphones in as I’m grabbing breakfast at the hotel and Liam and Levi join in while they are eating their cereal from home. Sometimes, I can even catch up with them while they are in the car heading to church :).

I keep a journal and do my best to write letters to my boys while I’m on the road. In my mind, this is an investment into their future and will hopefully leave them with dad’s thoughts even when I’m long gone. Further, I get to be apart of some incredible conferences and am learning from the best pastors, theologians, and scholars. I want my boys to have that available to them. Some of you may be surprised, but the journal is an old school written journal. My handwriting is horrible so I do my best to make it legible, but there is something about handwriting letters and journal entries that adds to the experience and character of that journal. Its almost like I am leaving a piece of myself in every journal entry.

This happens in conjunction with the journal and usually at night after I’m done writing but I want to always keep my boys in prayer. The reality is,

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being a dad is not on pause when I step foot on an airplane and then back on play when I’m home.
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 Fatherhood and being a dad is who I am in every city, airplane, hotel, and conference that I step into. So keeping my boys in prayer reminds me of who I am and why I do what I do.

I am still early in this whole traveling business. I don’t want this to consume my life. There has to be a balance between the road and home. I work for a great company that gives us unlimited time off. As long as I meet my goals and objectives I am free to take time off as I need. So, we try to schedule extended vacations, time with family, and “stay home vacations” into the year to ensure the balance. These go on my calendar and are blocked off. I’ve learned that the things that we hold as important make it on your calendar. My family is important, so they are literally on my calendar.