In recognition of our upcoming Vacation Bible School next week, with the theme “Road Trip: On the Go with God,” hopefully one of the inspirations for the big kids of Divinity and beyond is considering some of our own cherished road trips in our lifetime. For as much as we children of God of all ages are fully aware that we are on this beautiful and scary and captivating and terrifying and majestic and heart-wrenching life-long “road trip” with God, it is rather re-assuring to know that we have other joint-journey venturers to go alongside us. The ones who will serve as the visible sings of God’s love, the tangible upliftings of God’s compassion, the in-the-flesh embodiment of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The ones who will allow us to long for the eternal destination of this mortal undertaking, but to also inspire us to believe that there just might be a precious bit of heaven on this earth as well.
It was the summer after my freshman year of college. I had just caved into the whole pastor idea, so that meant a decision had to be made on which seminary to venture off to in a few years’ time. Naturally, the one in Columbus would make the most sense, having lived in Ohio my whole life and all. But one of those pesky clergy that got under my spiritual skin to start even haphazardly discerning this life detour, had graduated from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. So, I figured I should at least check it out.
For some reason, three friends from back home in northwestern Ohio, didn’t mind tagging along. We made a road trip of it, to be sure. Yes, the destination was ultimately 2481 Como Ave.in the state capital of the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” and it was a decent visit being part of chapel worship and speaking with a faculty member and sitting in on a class, but the ultimate memories of the road trip were made with the stops along the way.
First came Chicago at Wrigley Field, one of the treasured places of baseball Americana, as we sat relatively higher up behind the first base line. The Cubs were facing their most…not-so-friendly rivals in the St. Louis Cardinals. Soon enough, a pitch was thrown too close for the batter’s comfort level, and both team benches cleared, leading to the usual tussle on the field, and even a skirmish in the outfield stands behind their majestic ivy.
Then came the Mall of America in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, supposedly the largest such retail monstrosity in the consumer-driven Americana industry, with over 5 million square feet and surpassing 500 stores inside. At the time of our touristy stop, one of those places was the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant from Forest Gump fame. But evidently that luster didn’t stop clumsy me from accidentally knocking over my cup, and the soft drink spilling over to three floors below (not exactly one of the highlights in my lack-of-common-sense lifetime).
There was also Phantom of the Opera not far from there. The Andrew Lloyd Weber musical that begs audiences to consider the serenity of the music of the night, and that there just might be beauty in the places and people we don’t think so fondly of in this life. On the way back to the Buckeye state was a stop in Madison, Wisconsin, with a waitress whose dream was to make it on American Idol (not sure if that happened). The rest of the way we did our best to keep ourselves awake, as young 20’s believe they can stay up all hours through the night and all, to make it back to our small-town speck of America.
In the end, Luther Seminary did not turn out to be the place where I would venture off to next after college. Some might wonder if it was a completely wasted trip with nearly 700 miles one way, and who knows how much money we wasted at Wrigley and America’s biggest mall and other random nonsense along the road trip. But it was rather reassuring to know that no matter where the next four-year-stop would be in my respective mortal trek, there would be these people who wouldn’t mind sticking around. They were the real-life extensions of God’s grace and love and all-around never-giving-up presence.
Yes, we are all on this “road trip” with God, and no matter how full-of-goodness God is, this life-long journey can still be beautiful and scary and captivating and terrifying and majestic and heart-wrenching and everything else in between. We know God will insist on being with us through it all, all the way to the eternal destination, but we can also rest assured that God dwells in the other joint-journey venturers, who might just get under our spiritual skin just enough to have us believe that maybe, just maybe…there is a precious bit of heaven on this earth as well. That the stops we make along the way to that eternal destination might be rather heavenly in their own Gospel right. Thanks be to God, indeed!
In Christ,
Pastor Brad