Road Trip

"He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and now behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land which you, O Lord, have given me. Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God."

I just came back from a road trip sort of vacation with my family to New York City. My boys are at an age now where they simply stick their heads in their video games for the trips duration - nary a peep to be heard. I found myself feeling a sense of nostalgia for the days when they were little and filled with wide eyed wonder, and would spend 90% of any Road Trip asleep in the vehicle. We would start out at home surrounded by familiar sights and smells, only to have then wake 4 or 5 hours later, (like it was only a minute or two for them) in a completely different world for their senses to consume. I would have loved for my boys to have experienced New York City like this (it's really quite different than Alexandria Bay you know ;)

I can just imagine them staring up in awe at all the lights and huge skyscrapers, all the while wondering, "where are we and how did we get here?"

As we begin our journey of Lent together today, lemme ask you - Where are you right now, and how did you get there? Are you at a place you want to be? Are you at a place where God wants you to be?

God took the Israelites on a journey to the promised land of milk and honey, and once they arrived, they had one of those moments of clarity. A moment wherein they recognized how far they'd come, and how much different and better this new place was from slavery in Egypt.

Their response was one that I think we'd be wise to consider for ourselves in our journey - They recognized that it was God's doing that brought them there, they were filled with thanksgiving, and their wide eyed wonder gaze, upon this great and good God, led them to a place of worship.

God is still great and good - and He still wants to lead you to places of "milk and honey." I'm afraid we spend way too much of our lives resisting God's direction in lieu of our own best laid plans, even though God's direction is clearly and evidently best. The Israelites did this more than once in their 40 year journey to the promised land - but God was patient and faithful with them. He brought them home.

May you be aware of God's good and great leading in your life, and may His direction cause you to stare in wide eyed wonderful thanksgiving, as you worship Him anew.

Be God's, Scott