The Journey Begins

It is said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, what about a journey of 10,000 miles? I understand the meaning of saying, but let me tell you about the first couple of steps that I have made so far and some of the trip up that I have encountered.



Last Monday I set off from Northwest Arkansas to head down to Temple to spend time with my mom, then I planned to see my dad for the weekend in San Angelo. In Isaiah God say that your plans are not my plans and your ways are not my ways. Now understand that it was God's plans for me to spend time with my dad first because when I was almost halfway through my trip the transmission on my vehicle started to act up.

With my Transmission not shifting into 3rd I could not accelerate beyond 50 without doing any more damage than what was already done. After 2 hours of driving at what seemed like a crawl, I made it to the Oklahoma Texas state line. I pulled into a dealership and had them test the transmission to see what they could find. After another hour the mechanic told me that the problem most likely is internal and any repair would cost around two thousand dollars, I'm sorry 2,000 dollars. OK now my car is not worth 2 thousands dollars.

After getting the news I tell the mechanic that I need to make some calls and figure out what I am to do. I call my dad and he tells me that he will come from San Angelo to tow me back to using a car trailer. I drive to the nearest Walmart and spend an hour walking around, thinking and praying, and realizing that I am not good at waiting I contemplate slowly making my way in his direction to cut down on the distance we will have to tow the vehicle. After more prayer and confirmation from my dad I head out. So over the next four hours I drive for 30 to 40 minutes stop at local Walmarts for about that amount of time and then start again.

At nine I find myself waiting at a Starbucks on the far West Side of Ft. Worth; now remember I left at nine in the morning for what should have been a 8 hour trip, and I find myself 4 hours over the scheduled time at about half the distance of the scheduled trip.

My dad picks me up and we get to San Angelo late that night, or should I say early the next morning. I spend a couple of days with my dad then my mom comes and picks me and my stuff up and brings me to Temple. My joke now is that that is the furthest I have ever driven to avoid having to drive through Dallas.

So here it is, the day of my departure, I have all my bags packed and everything ready to go. I have learned a bit about waiting on the Lord and also trusting Him in both the small and big steps. I also learned that I cannot always do it all in one big step, but that there are times that I need to take small steps, rest, reflect on where I have been and plan on where I will be going.

In it all I have found God to be faithful, and as get ready to travel I am assured that He will be faithful as I take the next couple of steps.

Blessings in His wonderful Name

Joshua