Are We There Yet?

As a child I remember the hours of excruciating boredom spent in the back seat of my parents’ car with my three siblings. Each year we made the two thousand mile pilgrimage from California to our grandparents’ homes in Louisiana…each of us asking the same question over and over and over, “When are we going to be there?”

The same exact trip was far more stimulating when I…finally…got to drive. The hours of monotony became hours of endless excitement…wondering what lay beyond the next curve. I would dream of incredible high speed adventures, dream of life on the road, and revel in the excitement of the open highway. Nothing compared to the thrill of finding a series of Burma-Shave roadside signs with their words of wit and lofty blue-blood poetry like: My Job Is---Keeping Faces Clean---And Nobody Knows---De Stubble--- I’ve Seen---Burma-Shave. Or: These Signs---We Gladly---Dedicate---To Men Who’ve Had--- No Date Of Late---Burma-Shave.

I couldn’t help but think that life is just like that…you can sit in the back seat and keep asking “are we there yet?”, or you can get in the front seat and participate in the adventure. I also liken it to church going. You can just sit there looking at your watch asking yourself “when will this be over?”, or you can decide to participate. Participate in the fullness of the sacrifice on the cross and take charge of where you are going. For this is the most important road trip of your life. I looked at my watch for forty two years before I decided to pull out the road map and actually decide where I was headed. The journey is sooo much better when you know your destination. The hour spent in church is just a much needed pit stop in this all important road race…to insure that everything is ready to roll.

I no longer need to know when I'm going to get there, I just need to be gassed up and ready to go.

Thank you, Father God, for the book of directions.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for all the helpful roadside signs
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for the jump start whenever I need it
Amen