Trips and Trials

Church yesterday evening was excellent, just as last week.

After taking a late morning nap (because I woke up sorta early again) and after taking the dog on another walk (he's been a bundle of energy lately) and taking pictures of the trees in the park, I headed to Redmond for a couple of tasks: pick up a poster frame at Ben Franklin's (I found a couple neat sheets of stickers as well... maple leaves and koi fish), I went to Panera for lunch and to do some planning work on the big trip. I needed to collect all the addresses for all the places I'm going so I can quick enter them into the GPS as I'm there. It would be much more efficient than toting around 30 pages of Google Maps instructions. :) It was a little frustrating at times since those NPS websites never have a street address listed. They only have "directions".

This affair took a few hours, so by the time I was done I got another snack to eat and then headed home. By that time it was nearly time for the service to start. I got there a little late, but I'm very glad I went. It was the summation of last week's message about God's grace; this was about his faithfulness: how he is faithful and how I should respond to it. How I need to keep Christ at the center of my life.

After spending so much time today focused on one thing alone (myself, and having the best trip possible), it was a bit sobering to think about what I'm doing. Spending so much time and money on travel. Why am I joining the Navy? To serve and to be available for whatever the Lord has in store. I feel a bit like I'm going on a binge of self-centeredness before I give up some of my freedoms, sort of like some silly people do before giving something up for Lent. I don't really believe that I am; the Lord gave me the opportunity and means to enjoy it. I just need to live every single day like he is the most important, because he should be. And that's where I'm really struggling, I think. I feel very sad that I'm so unfamiliar with scripture and about how very little I read of it. I even have an audio copy... I have no excuse! And I think I should start serving a ministry somewhere, but I haven't been able to think of one yet. But I think I'm doing pretty well on one aspect of the "trusting him" part. He's given me great courage to take this next step in my life.

So I just need to remember to be satisfied with whatever happens on the trip and enjoy whatever I get to see, because I know there are going to be a thousand things along the way that I'll wish I could experience. I hope I don't forget that doing it in the first place is a great blessing. How silly would that be to be impatient and irritated the whole time? :)

Jp