FROM THE EDITOR
A HIGHER ELEVATION LAST MONTH I TOOK MY WHOLE FAMILY ON OUR FIRST ROAD TRIP. My hubby sat in
the passenger seat navigating, while my daughters — two long-legged teens and one pretween — coped with being a bit too close for comfort for the 12-hour drive to the Rockies. It’s not hard to imagine how the tension builds while spending that much time invading each others’ personal space. The journey was hot and tiring, and the route looked same-o, same-o for what seemed like a week, but we knew at the end, we had the promise of a mountaintop experience. It was so exciting when that seemingly endless drive through the Kansas and Colorado flatlands finally collided with the place where the snow still caps the Rockies. Have you ever noticed that sometimes, even when you get to your destination, you find yourself in a car full people too cranky to care about the beautiful scenery around them? It hardly compares to the journey the Israelites took to reach the land of milk and honey, but at times we made wrong turns and moments where one person’s grumbling was genuinely ruining the experience for everyone. In fact, the first tourist destination I wanted to hit when I entered the land of Rocky Mountain highs was the guest bed in the home of my sweet friend Penelope. However, arriving at a higher elevation elevated our thinking. Is sticking to a strict travel itinerary worth the anger and tension that builds when one or more of us fail to keep up to the demanding pace or wants to do something else? Or, is it more important just to enjoy spending unscheduled time with each other?
@barefacedgirl
Great joy can come in freeing yourself from your map and agenda and opening your eyes to see the beauty of the journey. Appreciate the detours even when they pull you off your intended time table.
James 4:13-15 says: “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’” (NIV). There is freedom in releasing life’s journey to God’s will. There is peace in knowing that He is controlling the waves. One of the greatest detours we took led us to pull off the road, take off our shoes as a family and soak our feet in the stream of rapids cutting its way through the Colorado mountains. It was truly one of the most treasured moments of our trip.To share that moment with you, I included a little sound byte of the rushing water above. Let this issue of Leading Hearts invite you to take an unexpected detour. Slip your shoes off and lose track of time a bit as you dip your feet into that cool stream, knowing God is pulling the pace and direction of the current. S Blessings,
AMBER WEIGAND-BUCKLEY EDITOR, LEADING HEARTS MAGAZINE
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