You can discover a lot from a road trip, especially if you keep the destination a secret.

The other day my wife, Lily, and I were looking for something to do during our current lockdown. 

We decided that we would head to Costco to get a few grocery items … not what I would normally think of when trying to come up with something to do. Shopping for groceries would be down near the bottom of my list of possible options. 

But the lockdown changes your perspective on things … besides, I thought I might be able to get a glimpse of some things I’m interested in. 

Normally I just browse and not buy as I stroll through Costco’s electronics section. But they did a great job stopping that; you couldn’t even window shop. They had skid loads of food items even blocking the view of some of the more eye-appealing inventory in the store.

With that option out of the way, we weren’t too long getting what we needed and headed out the door. 

The night was still young, the sun had not quite set, so I decided not to drive home. 

I decided to follow the sun. 

What do you do when you are locked down? We needed something different to do.

The sun was big – really big – deep orange and red filling the bottom third of the sky. 

So I just kept driving, driving towards the sun. I went by our turn and then I went by the next possible turn. 

Lily started questioning me. “Where are we going?” she asked. “I don’t know” I replied. 

We came to an intersection and she said, “Oh, turn down here”, but I kept going. She asked again where we were going and my reply was the same. 

She probably asked me a dozen times where we were going. 

By now the sun had set and there was only the glow of the sun on the horizon. We were quite a distance into the country by the time I turned around and started back down the road we had been driving on. 

Lily asked multiple times where we were going and gave me several commands to turn here or there. I could tell she didn’t like not knowing our destination. 

It was obvious that she was not satisfied with just going for a drive.

I pointed it out to her that she was all concerned about what was unimportant and was missing the enjoyment of the outing. 

That seemed to settle her down a bit. 

And what transpired during that little road trip was that we talked. We talked about several things we might not have talked about that night. 

We settled on a decision we were facing, that we probably would have put off in another setting – a setting like sitting in front of the TV watching some rehab addict rebuild the insides of an old home. 

That little road trip ended up being good and Lily never did find out where we were going. 

Here’s the thing: You can get in a rut with God where you don’t seem to be communicating very much. You aren’t saying much to Him and He doesn’t seem to be saying much to you. A change of venue can sometimes help. Start a conversation with the Lord in a different place, when you have time and no other distractions, when you are in an inviting environment to talk –  maybe a scenic spot, on a walk, or drive … maybe just a different place in your home. You may learn a lot from Him. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question:  Where are you most likely to open up to someone? Leave your comments and questions below.

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