Growing up, I never stayed in hotels. Didn't know anything about hotels. Later, I went to a few luncheons and banquets at hotels but I still didn't stay overnight – just drove up and parked, ate a meal, and went home. The hotel life was a mystery to me until about age 45 when I began to enter the unique experience of sleeping in hotels.
Now, after 25 years of putting my head on pillows from the bottom of the world to the top of the world, I have some thoughts on hotels.
It all started around 1976 when I became a Gideon. I began to take Bibles to different kinds of hotels and motels in my local neighborhood, and then in other cities and states within the USA. I soon learned that there are all kinds of hotels and motels. For instance, a room that cost $10 per night was different than a room that cost $200 or more per night. The smells were different, the insects were different, the neighbors were different, the view from the window was different.
The manager of one of the first motels to which I brought Bibles, gave me a master room key and I began knocking on doors to enter the room to place a new Bible. A young man opened one of the doors. As I peeked inside, I saw 4 or 5 other young men in the process of injecting drugs – I handed the fellow a new Bible and asked him to put it by the telephone. It was certainly not one of the $200 per night luxury hotels.
Later, I found out that Bibles also were placed in the very, very expensive hotel suites occupied by the rich and famous. The Bibles were everywhere the traveling public went. I was not yet a part of the "traveling public" so I was just getting a glimpse of hotels from the outside.
I soon discovered that as I began traveling out of the state or out of the country, it was necessary to stay in a hotel or motel. And sometimes, in strange cities, you could not always choose a five star hotel. In my journeys, I found some "one star" and "two star" hotels, and I found some places that could not quite merit any stars at all. I even chose to sleep in my clothes in a few, and used my jacket for a pillow. In some countries, the rooms on your floor can be occupied by people speaking 15 different languages, but not your own. And, their occupations can range from salesman or electrician, to burglar or drug dealer.
At any given moment, hotels and motels can have many miserable people in them. A lot of lives torn apart by personal tragedy; unhappy marriages, lives of crime, financial misery, bad health, wasted opportunities, and squandered hopes. If you sit in hotel lobbies and watch people walk by, you will see all of the dreams and disillusionment, successes and failures of mankind. But, it will all be compressed into brief moments. Like ships passing each other in the ocean, everyone has a story to tell, but no one wants to stop and listen. They are people on the go, constantly in motion, traveling from one city to another, from one country to another.
Well, what do I personally want from my hotel experience?
I can boil it down to only two things. First, and most important, I want the shower to be the greatest shower in the world. I don't care if the TV does not work, if the maids don't work, if the elevators don't work. But, if that shower doesn't work, then I have serious problems. I have been in rooms where the water dribbles or spurts or is colored brown, or doesn't get hot enough. I can only say that life is too short to not have a great shower when you are dirty, tired, smelly, and 10 hours behind the clock at home. When you travel and are far away from home, you want to get clean, stay clean, and start your new day fresh.
Second on my list of most important things, I want a good bed and a good nights sleep. Lumpy mattresses, strange looking bed covers that don't fit, pillows that look grungy, smells that you can't identify; they are all a part of hotel life that I can do without. When your head is touching the wall, and your toes are hanging out over the end of the mattress, you know that your sleep is not going to come easily. Getting a good night's sleep and rest can make up for a lot of other problems.
So there you have it. A good shower to get clean, and a good rest to start you on the next day of your life. But, ladies and gentlemen, to really be clean before God, and to really get good rest from God, both for today and for eternity, may I suggest that you consider the following:
Now, after 25 years of putting my head on pillows from the bottom of the world to the top of the world, I have some thoughts on hotels.
It all started around 1976 when I became a Gideon. I began to take Bibles to different kinds of hotels and motels in my local neighborhood, and then in other cities and states within the USA. I soon learned that there are all kinds of hotels and motels. For instance, a room that cost $10 per night was different than a room that cost $200 or more per night. The smells were different, the insects were different, the neighbors were different, the view from the window was different.
The manager of one of the first motels to which I brought Bibles, gave me a master room key and I began knocking on doors to enter the room to place a new Bible. A young man opened one of the doors. As I peeked inside, I saw 4 or 5 other young men in the process of injecting drugs – I handed the fellow a new Bible and asked him to put it by the telephone. It was certainly not one of the $200 per night luxury hotels.
Later, I found out that Bibles also were placed in the very, very expensive hotel suites occupied by the rich and famous. The Bibles were everywhere the traveling public went. I was not yet a part of the "traveling public" so I was just getting a glimpse of hotels from the outside.
I soon discovered that as I began traveling out of the state or out of the country, it was necessary to stay in a hotel or motel. And sometimes, in strange cities, you could not always choose a five star hotel. In my journeys, I found some "one star" and "two star" hotels, and I found some places that could not quite merit any stars at all. I even chose to sleep in my clothes in a few, and used my jacket for a pillow. In some countries, the rooms on your floor can be occupied by people speaking 15 different languages, but not your own. And, their occupations can range from salesman or electrician, to burglar or drug dealer.
At any given moment, hotels and motels can have many miserable people in them. A lot of lives torn apart by personal tragedy; unhappy marriages, lives of crime, financial misery, bad health, wasted opportunities, and squandered hopes. If you sit in hotel lobbies and watch people walk by, you will see all of the dreams and disillusionment, successes and failures of mankind. But, it will all be compressed into brief moments. Like ships passing each other in the ocean, everyone has a story to tell, but no one wants to stop and listen. They are people on the go, constantly in motion, traveling from one city to another, from one country to another.
Well, what do I personally want from my hotel experience?
I can boil it down to only two things. First, and most important, I want the shower to be the greatest shower in the world. I don't care if the TV does not work, if the maids don't work, if the elevators don't work. But, if that shower doesn't work, then I have serious problems. I have been in rooms where the water dribbles or spurts or is colored brown, or doesn't get hot enough. I can only say that life is too short to not have a great shower when you are dirty, tired, smelly, and 10 hours behind the clock at home. When you travel and are far away from home, you want to get clean, stay clean, and start your new day fresh.
Second on my list of most important things, I want a good bed and a good nights sleep. Lumpy mattresses, strange looking bed covers that don't fit, pillows that look grungy, smells that you can't identify; they are all a part of hotel life that I can do without. When your head is touching the wall, and your toes are hanging out over the end of the mattress, you know that your sleep is not going to come easily. Getting a good night's sleep and rest can make up for a lot of other problems.
So there you have it. A good shower to get clean, and a good rest to start you on the next day of your life. But, ladies and gentlemen, to really be clean before God, and to really get good rest from God, both for today and for eternity, may I suggest that you consider the following:
Psalms 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Luke 5:12-13 And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. [13] And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.
Hebrews 4:8-11 There remains therefore a rest to the people of God. [10] For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his. [11] Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Matthew 11:28-29 Come unto me, all of you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls.
Hebrews 4:8-11 There remains therefore a rest to the people of God. [10] For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his. [11] Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Matthew 11:28-29 Come unto me, all of you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls.
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