A Year of Sabbaths (Week 44): Road Trip

(Image by Billy Frank Alexander, www.freeimages.com #1105898)

"Now I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel."  Philippians 1:12

Sometimes the hardest thing about getting away is just getting away. Before you every roll on the Mother Road, there's laundry to pack and a car to load. House sitters that are also adept at chicken husbandry must be tracked down and maps and hotel reservations must be procured.  

Ahh! The thrills of the open road. Getting there is half the battle.

We spent my wife's birthday packing the suitcases for our annual trek to family camp. (Happy Birthday, honey!) We left the next morning after loading the van. (Okay...minivan. For the record, it was a rental. And I never thought I would say this about a minivan, but it was SWEET!) A full day of driving, a couple books on tape, a Thomas the Train video, and the romantic notion of the road trip had worn off to the point that we forgot it was also our anniversary!  (Happy Anniversary, honey!) We actually knew the date of our anniversary, but in the mad dash to get on the road, we lost track of the actual calendar day that we were actually on...if my memory serves me correctly, our anniversary dinner was spent with our three boys at Hardee's somewhere on the open road.

But it was good. With every mile, we were further from the worries of our humble home.

Getting ready for the road trip is a bit like the Christian life. It isn't always easy.  It isn't always comfortable.  For example, Paul was chained to a Roman soldier 24/7 and said not that it was comfortable, but that it "advanced" the Gospel.  It wasn't the Gospel, but it advanced it.  Sabbath isn't the sum of the Christian life, but it does serve to "advance" the Christian life. It moves us down the road.

Therefore, Sabbath doesn't need to be comfortable to be worthwhile.  Comfort is not the goal of Sabbath.  The goal of Sabbath is connectedness is...or "re-connectedness".  In Sabbath, we are reconnected to God. We are reconnected to one another. We are reconnected to us. And sometimes, just getting to the point of "reconnecting" is a lot of hard work.

But it is worth it and, by the way, we made it safely to family camp.  God moved. We were re-connected not because we were comfortable, but because we dared to get a little uncomfortable and get out on the open road.

Church Stopping. Less doing. More being.