Amy Oden
for Church of the Resurrection Insights Blog,
Psalm 119:101-105
My late husband, Perry, loved to take road trips. He had grown up working on cars with his dad and liked to work on cars as well as drive them. We had wonderful drives out west, camping and mountain-biking through Utah, Wyoming and Montana. When we lived in Washington, D.C., road trips took us up to Maine, to the Canaan Valley of West Virginia and to the Finger Lakes of New York. These are some of my most cherished memories of life with Perry.
In the car, we had the freedom of soaring down the road, the simplicity of just looking out the window to watch the world go by, the conversations that seem to only be able to happen in the car. And the tunes! You probably have some great memories of road trips, too.
This is exactly the point of the trip, not just to get to a destination, but to experience joy, discovery and aliveness along the way. Drivers ed and the car’s owner’s manual do more than teach us the mechanics of driving. Because they shape our driving habits, our understanding of both the car and its operation on the road, we can enjoy the trip, basking in the fruits of aliveness and discovery.
Joy and aliveness are the fruit of journeying the path God offers. The Psalmist says it will be “so pleasing to my taste buds–it’s sweeter than honey in my mouth!” (Ps 119: 103). Recently a friend reminded me that there’s no big scoreboard in the sky that tallies how good I am. This was truly a word from God that tasted sweet, relaxing my spirit into true Life, not striving.
Today, listen for a wise word from God that lands sweet like honey on your soul, or that sets a wave of aliveness through you like pop-rocks in your soul. Ahhh…. Amen.
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