The Big Ditch

It was a day like any other... Okay, not really. We were in Vegas for the hubby's 39.95 birthday. He could pick anywhere he wanted and this was his choice.

This is the trip that, according to Brudder (my brother-in-law), placed me in the Pantheon of Most Awesomeness. I have the award to prove it. Evidently when you give your husband the gift of driving a Porche really really fast at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, your awesomeness rises to an unprecedented level, hence the award. And yes, I was nervous at first. If you could ride with him on the Beltline, you would understand my hesitation at him legally being able to drive faster than a speeding bullet. But as he started driving, I realized he was really good. And then it happened, I went from nervous to competitive. I found myself saying "Don't you pass MY Husband!" "Bobbie, you kick his (now is the time to remember why it is called Sass Mouth Christian)!" Somewhere about lap # .5, the sweet Southern Lady turned into some deranged, screaming, jumping up and down fan. I learned that if he actually had his dream job, coaching basketball, I would probably get a technical. Anyway, that is not the story I wanted to share. It has to do with a very big ditch.

Since this was a big birthday for hubby, Mama, Sissy and Sissy's hubby came. While Sissy and S'sH stayed in Vegas, the rest of us struck out for the big ditch, I mean the Grand Canyon. Here is where I will give you the Reader's Digest Condensed version...

No Map
No Signal
So Lost

A little advise- when your phone finally gets a signal, Grand Canyon does not work for a street address. Neither does- Big Ditch, Hole in the Ground nor Dear Jesus, Help us we are lost in the desert.

We have been driving for 5 hours. It should only have taken 4. It is obvious we are lost. Thankfully, we have stayed on the same highway so it was not a "die in the desert" lost. More like a find me a bathroom in the desert or else lost. After finally finding the bathroom, we all hop back in the car with a map in hand. I unfold the map and start to look for the way. My mother from the back seat pipes in and says "There was a sign about 1 hour back that said Grand Canyon. I just thought y'all had another plan to do more sightseeing."

Now this is one of those moments in life that can go one of two ways... You can get pissed and pout the rest of the trip OR you can simply get over it, turn the car around and find the big ditch. You have a choice.

We chose to turn the car around and find the big ditch. And the further into the trip we got, the funnier the whole thing became. By the time we got to the Grand Canyon, we had laughed so hard and so long that we were hurting. The laughter would die down and some one would ask "How could we not find the big ditch?" and it would start all over again. I think a Facebook post was made that the first person to help us find the Big Ditch would get a prize.

Finally, we arrived. Now, I love being outside. Laying on a blanket outside with a nice breeze and all the sounds of nature is glorious to me. Those are the moments when I feel God. Hubby and I have traveled to places that make you stop, sit quietly and be in awe of God and all that He has done. Yosemite, a mountain top in NC, the Redwood Forest, the countryside of Switzerland, these are all places that take our breath away, The Big Ditch, however, takes the cake, the pie and my grandma's apple jacks. It was beautiful and amazing. The thing that stood out the most was how incredibly quiet it was. Almost everyone there was reverent, a moment of quiet that even hushed the thoughts that always pop up when you are trying to pray or meditate. A moment of pure, unadulterated peace. I think it is God's way of showing you, one day this is how it will be, always. The Grand Canyon should be on your bucket list.

But I want to go back to the journey getting there. We had a choice that day. Things were certainly not going as planned. We wanted to get to our destination but several factors were preventing us from doing so. We had a choice- get angry or accept the circumstances and try to make the best of them. I have often wondered how different our experience would have been if we had chosen differently. Would we have missed such a special moment if we were angry at getting lost? That moment of knowing without a doubt that God is real and He loves us?

It is so easy to sit here and type about making choices when it is in regard to getting lost while driving. But I also know it is hard to make a choice of being joyful and content when things are at their absolute worst. It was difficult to appreciate and understand where God was taking us when my Mom was having chemo for breast cancer and my Dad was dying of esophageal cancer. It is difficult to understand why my father-in-law is fading to a disease like Alzheimer's. I write this so that you know my choice to find joy in the path God has given me is not based on a path of candy canes and lollipops. It is about choosing, making difficult choices. But I choose it because I have seen what God does with our suffering. He turns it into beautiful, amazing moments of peace. It may take a little longer than YOU planned to get there but I promise He will get you there.

4.Be glad in the Lord always! Again I say, be glad! 5.Let your gentleness show in your treatment of all people. The Lord is near. 6.Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks. 7.Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:4-7

How awesome is it that this is verse of the day on the day I am making this post? love-j