Lessons on the Road

We decided it was time to take another road trip this year for our family vacation.  My kids love road trips. It is something we do about every 3 years.  So, we take 2 weeks and just travel and see all kinds of things.

This year we decided to head to Omaha Nebraska. Now you might be thinking, why there, well it has one of America’s best zoos. I have a daughter wants to be a zoologist when she graduates from college, so we always make it a point to visit as many zoos as we can.  Years ago, we discovered this zoo, on a road trip, and we have gone back numerous times. It is one of our families’ favorite places to visit.

We only stayed in Omaha for one night and then we headed for South Dakota.  More specifically Rapid City South Dakota.  On the way there we visited the Corn Palace, and Badlands National Park and ended the day at Wall Drug.  We stayed 3 nights in Rapid City where we visited Mount Rushmore, Keystone, Deadwood, and Reptile Gardens.

While we were in Rapid City, I was doing my morning Devos, I am currently reading the Bible through chronologically. I came to a passage of scripture that just struck me and I must be honest I didn’t do any more bible reading for the entire trip. I decided to focus everything on this passage. I prayed through this passage every day and tried to read it every day.

It is found in the book of Jonah chapter 2: Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish: I called to the Lord in my distress, and He answered me. I cried out for help from deep inside Sheol; You heard my voice. When you threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas, the current overcame me. All your breakers and your billows swept over me. And I said, I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look once more toward your holy temple. The water engulfed me up to the neck; the watery depths overcame me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. I sank to the foundations of the mountains, the earth’s gates shut behind me forever! Then you raised my life from the Pit, Lord my God! As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple. Those who cherish worthless idols abandon their faithful love, but as for me, I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.  Jonah 2

1.  Running From God 

As I was praying through this passage of scripture, I realized that so often we are on the road to Tarshish before we realize we are on the road to Tarshish.  We are walking away from God before we know it, and then we end up in the belly of the whale. 

Have you found in life that you often end up in the whale and you wonder how that happened.  I know I have been there many times in my life.  When I re-evaluate where I have been I realize that I have been on the Tarshish road. We often don’t take inventory of our lives until we end up in the whale. We have stopped reading our Bibles, volunteering at church, and giving back to God what is his.  We have stopped doing the things we know to do in life to keep our lives right with God. 

As we were on the road, I realized how tired I was. I also realized I was not relying on God for His strength in my life. I do think it is very important for us to get away and have that time to recharge, but I realized I was starting to walk the Tarshish road. Not that I was walking away from God, but I had stopped doing some of the things I knew to do. Through my daily prayer time, through this passage, I realized I was doing things on my strength, not God’s.  It’s so easy to stop relying on God for strength. 

2.  Remembering The Lord

As we were traveling, my wife would be sleeping or playing games, and my kids were reading books, sleeping, or playing games on their tablets, I had that time to just remember all that God has done for me and my family.  I was thinking back over all these years of ministry and remembering the times that God has provided for our family. Remembering the times that God got us through a tough time.

I think so often in life, we never look back to remember God.  We always want to be looking forward in life. Looking forward to what we want to do, or what we think God wants us to do. I have found that often I need to look back to look forward.  I have to remember that time that I was completely out of money, and we had no food on our table. We had two little kids in the house, so we prayed and thanked God for the food he was going to give us. As soon as I said Amen there was a knock on the door and it was somebody from our church with a whole meal cooked for us. I could tell you story upon story of how God has provided for us through the years.

All in all, it was a great trip to see some great sites. We had a great time spending time together as a family. I love our road trips, but every time I go on a road trip God always teaches me something.  This time God taught me to rely on Him more fully. That when I know I am starting to drift in life, it’s time to start praying.

Let’s start praying before we get into the belly of the whale!