‘You’re blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by Yahweh’ – Psalm 119 MSG
Tiffany and I got to fly without children (a thousand blessings upon Grandma and Grandpa!) to Sarasota, FL a week ago, with five days to travel from the east coast to New Orleans, LA.
As the photo evidence is hopefully proving, the trip was wonderful. We walked along the water in Sarasota and The Forgotten Coast and Biloxi and the Big Easy – and in-between visited a couple state parks, an air museum, had some excellent cuisine and just…enjoyed each other’s company.
Got home Thursday and jumped right into Busy Season with a ballet recital to film Friday, have three more today, another tomorrow, vacation is definitely over–but as I ran cameras last night I thought about the trip.
There were highs and lows, as all experiences are wont to have; rush-hour traffic outside Pensacola wasn’t fantastic and there’s a hotel in New Orleans we won’t be patronizing again what with the broken amenities and surprise fees–but even in the moments (thankfully few and far between) where things were more footsore and humid than cool breeze off the ocean, we were still together.
Which is the point, usually, of vacating but I’ve had experiences in that vein which were much more ‘how long is the line for that ride’ and ‘can we get to the scheduled thing on time’ and ‘weren’t we supposed to be doing’ in my life which, frankly, I have few memories of. This Gulf trip, one of the fantastic things about the company that let me tag along with her is that outside of getting to a New Orleans airport by 2pm Central Time on Thursday the 23rd, for five days we didn’t have a schedule.
No itinerary. Nothing we’d set our sights on as needing to do.
When beach walks or swimming were available we definitely took advantage, and on the way to more beaches there was an air museum which is in my wheelhouse and a state park which is in hers but whether watching the sun set over the water or inching along in Pensacola we were together.
(spiritual analogy warning)
I’ve spent so much of my ‘walk with God’ checking off things to do. Appropriate amount of prayer/praise/Bible reading so that the Almighty would answer my prayer or forgive me my sins or give me direction or something
(Jesus paid the price for those sins. Once for all. When I screw up I need to realize and admit it for my benefit but everything I’ve ever done or will do has already been paid for. Forgiven 2,000 years ago. Read your Bible, Best Beloved)
when what He really wants isn’t sacrifice, isn’t dutiful behavior, certainly isn’t crossing items off a list so that I can measure up.
If I’d treated this past week like that, constantly checking an itinerary to make sure I’d done the things necessary so that Tiffany would be pleased…I would have been spending time with the doing and not with my wife.
He doesn’t want us to do. He wants us to be. With Him.
I read the Word this morning because I love Him and the more time I read His words the better I understand how much He loves me. Same goes for prayer and praise.
The Almighty is always, always always holding out His hand.
‘Let’s go for a walk.’
‘And should I wander off like a lost sheep, seek me! I’ll recognize the sound of your voice.’ – Psalm 119 MSG
Don’t forget to write…
The Story So Far 