Getting lost on the way [Peace]…
My journal entry for day one at Quiet Reflections reads:
” Spent the afternoon laughing with Nathan about getting so lost on the way here, unpacking and picking fresh peaches. We watched a beautiful cloudy sunset over Mount Pisgah and sang hymns together on the deck as night fell around us.”
I know, it seems idyllic, right? The first day of five days totally alone with one another and God on top of a mountain. But notice the first line…”getting so lost on the way here.” The “so” should be in capital letters.
Our wrong turn was definitely the fault of my misreading of the GPS, and as a result we made one more right turn than we should have getting off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Now this led us down a road that just did not look quite as well paved as the ones we had been traveling. Then it got more narrow, and more patched, and the lines were definitely not well marked anymore. Our first big clue should have been the sign that said “End State Maintenance,” but we were on vacation and on an adventure and we have an SUV, so we kept going. The paved road turned to gravel, then to a sort of gravel/dirt mix, and then to one lane. As the branches brushed our truck from both sides, we noticed a little bunny ahead of us on the lane. He just sat there and looked at us as if to say: “Oh, what are you?” before SLOWLY hopping off into the bushes. Another sign this was not a well traveled road. But onward we pressed, fueled by our crazy GPS that kept insisting we were still on the way to our destination. We passed through one metal gate, off its hinges, and then turned onto another lane through a field, and back into woods where we met a nice couple on a Polaris. Now, if you city people don’t know, a Polaris is an all terrain vehicle that people, particularly mountain people, love because they will just about go anywhere. So, being a girl, I said: “STOP! Let’s ask them where this goes.” They just laughed at us and said: “Um, we are just visiting, but we think this road just goes further in.” Ok. But the GPS had us still on the purple path! So….. thinking the GPS must know better, we kept going. Down a hill, past a well hidden cabin, and finally, to a full stop, in front of the muddiest, muckiest, SUV trap-of-a-road we had ever seen. That is when Nathan called it. We were lost. And, we were pretty sure AAA would never find us if we got stuck in that mess.
Now there have been times, times I am ashamed of, when this type of thing would have been so frustrating to one or both of us, that our attitudes would have led to angry comments, or blaming one another, or worse. But not now. Not this time. Instead we were laughing our heads off. No cell phone coverage, a crazy GPS, falling light, no maps with us, and we were really, really lost. But we had joy…. and peace. We had no idea how we were going to get to our destination, but we could enjoy the journey together. We didn’t have to feel anxious about getting there. We both knew it would happen, eventually.
A wise man once gave me a valuable tool for determining when I am in-step with Holy Spirit. He said its true that the fruit of Holy Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Goodness, Gentleness, Kindness, Faithfulness and Self-Control. But, look at the first three. They are the keys to knowing if you are out of step with Him. If you are not experiencing a flow of Love, Joy, or Peace, something is wrong. Check in with Him. Ask Him to reveal what has come between the two of you: sin? neglect? indifference to His leading? Check in.
So on our journey to nowhere, we had been given an abundance of Peace. Which means we were experiencing the abundant presence of the third member of the Godhead. I don’t know why this time was different, except maybe our hearts were being prepared for the next few days. Maybe it was because we had taken one small step in opening our hearts to the One who IS Peace by saying yes to this weekend. Regardless of why, the experience was indelible. Two, admittedly pretty driven people, lost and laughing, enjoying the journey and the fellowship with each other. Knowing it was more about the process than the product…. a lesson that Father wanted to drive deep within us in the next few days….
Next post: My noisy, noisy, head….
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