Whether You’re Coming or Going

“Love doesn’t make the world go around.  Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.”

_Franklin Jones

Sonja and I like to take what we call rambling vacations.  We pick a start date and a finish date, and then we just get in our car and head out, deciding each day which direction to go and where to stop along the way. 

With me being a planner almost to a fault and with Sonja being (How can I say this without getting in trouble!) a little more “spontaneous”, (Okay, let’s be honest, a whole lot more spontaneous!) the relaxed and unrestricted schedule of “rambling” has created some of our most treasured vacation memories. 

For Sonja, it allows her to embrace her spontaneity to the fullest and for me it allows me to relax and not feel guilty for not leveraging every moment of every day for some worthy cause or purpose. 

It’s been a huge win/win for us.

There’s an important lesson that our rambling vacations have taught me about life: You don’t have to have all the details at your fingertips to get somewhere.

I phrase it this way, using a phrase (and book title) coined by Robert Quinn: Build the bridge as you walk on it.

When I evaluate our lives together I am amazed at the life Sonja and I have been privileged to live and are currently living.  It has been and continues to be an amazingly wonderful life. 

How did we get here?  I really don’t know.  We never had master plan for our lives.  We didn’t have “seed money” to get us started; we barely had enough money to buy a bag of beans when we started.  But we did want to go somewhere with our lives.  We did want to leverage our lives to the fullest for the glory of God and so we just started—building the bridge as we walked on it. 

Figuring it out as we went along.

Three steps forward, two steps back.

Zigging and then zagging; seldom a straight line to anywhere.

I bet from the angel’s view from heaven, watching us live our lives has been like watching ants as they meander along from point A to point…somewhere. 

However…

There was one constant about our rambling vacations that is true about our coming-and-going life together and that is, it was always our ultimate goal to get back home while honoring our Lord Jesus along the way.

That’s a pretty good template for life.

• First, if you know why you’re doing what you’re doing you don’t have to know how to do what you want to do.  Just start.

• Second, if you have an general idea of where you want to go with your life, you don’t have to know how to get there.  Just start.

The ONE THING for today: Never, never, never allow your lack of knowledge or resources to stop you from taking the next step. Start! Start today! Start making the next wisest decision you know to make. Start building the bridge as you walk on it.

Home is waiting.