The title of today’s moment can conjure up a lot of different meanings. There are a lot of people that wake up in the morning and either ask themselves, where am I this morning (this happened only to the extent I forgot what state I was in not where I spent the night), what happened last night or even who is this next to me? But for me, I wake up this morning and look around saying to myself. Wow, that was fun and adventurous. We have just spent the last four weeks in an RV and traveled some three thousand miles going from eastern South Dakota through Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks then up into Canada where we saw some of the most majestic scenery ever and now we are back in western South Dakota. But wait, as if that wasn’t enough, we also did it with our two kids and three dogs too. The adventure is by no means over but just step one in a journey that does not have a definite destination. We are fulltime in the 5th wheel and after the 4th of July, our kids will head back to their college town to get ready for their next step in their educational lives at South Dakota State University.
So this morning I wake up with a different kind of reality, one that starts to go from vacation mode to life mode. What does that mean you say? Well, I mean that sometimes in we will experience many different things along the road or life. We will have times of extreme joy and fun. We will have times of pain and sorrow and then we will even experience times where life just kind of trudges along. Each of these are ok and even have their own sense of beauty but none are meant to be the only type of life we are to live. We will all have times of sorrow in our lives, we will all have times of joy in our lives if we look at life right, and we will all have times in our lives where we just seem to click off the days of life heading down the road.
My thoughts today revolve around what kind of life are we driving and where are we taking it? Are you driving your life or are you letting someone else drive your life for you? I’m not talking about a country song where you say “Jesus take the wheel” but rather I am asking you who is making decisions in your life? I recommend using the map that Jesus gives us as to travel the road of life but ultimately you will have to decide what road you are going to take. Jeremiah wrote what God told him “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jer 29.11
As we traveled over the miles we drove on roads that ranged from smooth blacktop and concrete to gravel and even a stretch of mud and muck that made quite a mess of everything. You and I will experience the same thing in each of our lives. One day we are cruising down the road of life and everything is great. Another day we have to slow down to navigate the uneven gravel roads of a bumpy life and some days we even have to pull over to wait out a storm and even after its past the mud and muck of life is still there to remind us we are not where we want to be. But remember this, God wants you to make the right decisions in life even when things are not going as we would like them (I mean come on, whoever looks forward to road construction) and keep both hands on the wheel. Work hard to make a living, Love hard to enjoy the wife of your youth, play hard to enjoy a Sabbath, and worship hard to remember that God is the creator of everything and he is due our praise.
In a post like this, it is impossible for me to fill out every thought but remember this “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Eph 3:20–21) Happy travels and if you would like me to pray for you, feel free to respond and I would be honored to do so.
Happy travels!!
ETHOS 4 LIFE 