“This is a test.  This is only a test.  In the unlikely event of an actual emergency . . . ”  One of the benefits of viewing the year as a collection of 365 blank pages that are written on by each day of my life is it helps me to see recurring themes and how God is continually preparing me.  I remember when I taught 5th grade at MCS, the students would constantly be asking, “Will this be on the test?”.  The unspoken reasoning was that if it wasn’t going to be on the test then they wouldn’t pay attention.  Sometimes I think we live life that way.  We’re not convinced the day to day stuff will be on the test, so we don’t pay attention to what God is trying to do in our life.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Today was a travel day as I prepare to represent Impact Prayer Ministry at a camp leader’s conference.  There was great potential for it to be a messy travel day as yesterday and last night a major winter storm rolled across the path I would be taking.  The first half of the trip was clear roads and sky and I was thankful for such a smooth start.  My GPS unit receives traffic information and eventually it alerted me to the fact that there was a 108 minute delay 60 miles ahead of me on my route.  It offered me a new route that only had a 86 minute delay. 🙂  The new route would depart my current route just before the delay so I had a good amount of time to decide.  About 30 miles out, it adjusted the original delay to only being 35 minutes so I decided to stop and top off the truck’s fuel tank and got me an over-sized Ale-8 fountain drink so I would be prepared for whatever upcoming delay there would be.  As I continued, the delay was down to 16 minutes and by the time I went through the delay areas the delay no longer existed.  Lesson number one of the day:  You often have no control over delays on your journey.  Your job is to just be faithful in continuing your journey in order to reach your destination.

I arrived at the hotel and put my things in the room before heading out to take some photos and get something to eat.  On the way out of the hotel, I went down the hall to see where the pool was and what it looked like.  Surprise!  The sign on the door said it was closed for renovations and inside the room was a very empty pool.  My first thought was to complain all the way up whatever chain of command I could find when I returned to the room later.  Then I ended up taking a drive through some of the snow-covered foothills where I was able to take in some of the incredible beauty of God’s creation.  The more I viewed the handiwork of God, the less concerned I was about a man-made pool in a hotel building.  Lesson number two of the day:  Be careful not to miss the beauty of the journey by becoming distracted with things that aren’t primary to the journey.

After a scenic evening drive that ended up being longer than I had planned, it was time to get something to eat.  I decided I would head up the road to Chik-Fil-A where I knew there was a Wal-Mart right behind it so could pick up a few supplies.  As I reached the intersection, I first thought my memory hadn’t served me well because while I saw the Wal-Mart sign, there didn’t appear to be a Chik-Fil-A sign.  After a closer look, the restaurant was there but all of the outside lighting was off and there were only a few lights on inside and there were just a couple cars visible on the property on a Saturday evening.  It was obviously closed for some reason and I was disappointed.  Now I had to rethink what I was hungry for.  A quick trip through Wal-Mart found some turkey slices, BBQ  Fritos, microwave popcorn, chocolate, and bottled water so I had all the makings of a nutritious meal I could have back in my room. 🙂  Lesson three of the day:  You won’t always get exactly what you may have your heart set on but keep your eyes open for viable options.

It’s funny, as I was driving today I thought to myself that today’s written page would probably be much shorter than most of them so far because I hadn’t really done much but drive.  Turns out it is probably one of the longer ones. 🙂  I pray that my face stays  turned toward God so I don’t miss the lessons He gives.  Fortunately, the test that matters the most is all about God’s faithfulness to His Word and my relationship with His Son.

“I’m satisfied with, just a cottage below.”  . . . or a little cabin on the hillside. 🙂