Day Three - Lombard/Wheaton, IL

Today was a break from driving. We spent time with our friends in Lombard, and some time with Robyn's family in Wheaton.

Robyn's aunt, grandfather, and cousin are all suffering from one sort of ailment or another. Aunt Ginny is recovering from hip replacement surgery earlier this week, Grandy is in the hospital with dehydration, and cousin Shannon came home early from school sick. Health is something we take for granted until we don't have it. I hope we leave them in better shape than we've found them.

This time on the road has afforded me the opportunity to hear some of the "darndest things" our kids say. Here is one from Meredith today:

"Dad, I spend so much time holding Moriah, or reading a book to Sander, or playing with Maggie, or telling Brinkley to come inside - will I ever get old enough that I can just relax a little bit?" Nobody said being the six and having three younger siblings was going to be a bed of roses!

Day Two, Lombard, IL - Slow going

I'm writing this at 12:45 a.m. on Wednesday night, or Thursday morning to be accurate. We made it to Chicago after a long day on the road.

The highlight of the day was meeting an old high school friend in St. Louis, Rob. We met him at Ted Drewes, a locally famous frozen custard place. I haven't seen Rob for about 15 years or so. He looks older, of course, but still seems to be the same guy I knew in high school. He has a full head of hair, so naturally I resent him for that.

Robyn and I were just talking with our gracious hostess, Kristy, about how our stops add so much time to our driving. A normal person could have traveled the distance we did in about 11 hours or so. It took us 16 hours. We are the model of inefficiency:

First stop - nurse the baby, walk the dog, buy coffee, take the kids to the bathroom. 30 minutes.
Second stop - exit highway to search car for missing driver's license and Visa. Thankfully, they were found. 10 minutes.
Third stop - go to Wal-mart to call Rob and let him know we are running late. Leave two messages on two answering machines, one of which required phone card located in Suburban circling the parking lot. 20 minutes.
Fourth stop - meet Rob at Ted Drewes, nurse the baby, take the kids to the bathroom, make picnic lunch, order frozen custard, go to park to eat frozen custard, walk the dog, get gas, make two phone calls to Chicago to let people know we are running late. 2 hours, 45 minutes.
Fifth stop - visit downtown Sprinfield, Illinois, to find a "Taste of Chicago" fair heard on radio, find out it wasn't really open to the general public, go to first restaurant, hear about 45 minute wait, go to second restaurant and eat. 2 hours.
Sixth stop - exit highway to take Maggie to the bathroom, discover she can't go after all. 15 minutes.

Oh well, better late than never.

Day One – Joplin, Missouri

Today we are officially “homeless”. We loaded all of our belongings onto the moving truck and we returned the house keys back to our landlord.

Nearly everything went smoothly. The Bogert family arrived with their tractor-trailer in the morning, and with their help and the help of my parents and many friends, all the furniture and boxes were carefully and tightly packed onto the truck.

If you’re into packing, like my dad, you’ll be interested to see that even the car was put on the trailer.

Moving is just not something you do by yourself. You need the help of others, and we were blessed to have so many lend a hand to us today.

I said “nearly” everything went smoothly. The only mishap occurred when I neglected to properly secure the lid to the car-top carrier on our Suburban. As my mom was driving north on I-35 to drop off our kids at a friend's house, the lid opened up and luggage began flying off the car onto the highway. Another driver signaled to her the problem, and no sooner had she pulled over to see what was wrong when another driver pulled over with the lost luggage he had picked up for her.

Thanks to the kindness of these people, my mom not only pulled over before more luggage was lost, but she also recovered the two that had flown off the car. Thanks to the goodness of God, the flying bags didn’t cause an accident. A potential disaster was averted.

It was a good lesson to learn. I think I’ll be extra careful in securing it for the rest of the trip. Otherwise, we may have left a trail of underwear and socks on the highways up to Alaska. Someone mentioned that at least that would have made it easy to find our way back.

We covered 257 miles today. Robyn pointed out that we were already 1/20^th of the way there!

Day Zero

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

As he reflected on his life and many experiences, Solomon wrote these words to express one key lesson he learned on the way - in life timing is everything. There is a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to mourn, a time to dance, a time to seek, and a time to lose, a time to keep, and a time to cast away, and so on and so on.

Timing is everything. More accurately, God's timing is everything. In his gracious providence he leads and guides his people through those changes he has planned for us from all eternity.

In God's providence, he has led our family to a time of change. Having accepted a call to minister to a congregation in Wasilla, Alaska, we have sensed God's guidance in our lives. We are leaving behind a ministry, and a life, in Norman, Oklahoma, in order to begin a new ministry and life in Alaska. In many small ways, the Lord has confirmed to us his hand in this move. All of the pieces have fallen into place for us, and we are now prepared to load our worldly treasures onto a moving truck and set out for the long drive to Alaska.

My parents, who have more experience moving than most, and who work harder than most, drove down from Montana to help us pack. We couldn't have done it without their help. The garage is now full of boxes and stuff, and we are tying up the loose ends of packing. Tomorrow morning, Lord willing, the moving truck will arrive and we will begin our long journey from OK to AK.

As you think of it, please pray for our safety during the next two and a half weeks. And as we are driving with four children six and under, and a dog, pray for our sanity as well!

I hope to maintain regular updates on this blog about our trip to the The Last Frontier. I am also hoping to take some pictures along the way to share with you.

Timing is everything, and it is almost time for bed. Stay tuned for more updates.

An odd Saturday night

The night was odd because I was not preparing a sermon for Sunday morning. It is a rare Sunday that I am not in the pulpit, so this evening has felt a bit strange for me.

But it has been a busy day nevertheless. My parents arrived earlier in the week and they have been helping us with all the packing we need to do for the big move on Tuesday. So, I've spent most of the day either packing up stuff, moving stuff, or throwing away stuff. I think the last is my favorite!

I sometimes cannot believe that by this time next month, if all goes according to plan, we will be living in Alaska! I sometimes forget in the midst of the stress of packing that we are making a very big move.

It is during these times of change and busyness that I often feel spiritually dry. With so much to do, and so much to preoccupy my thoughts, it is almost impossible for me to carve out time for prayer, reading, and meditation. And even if I do carve out the time, my mind refuses to think of anything else but what needs to get done that day.

But I know the Lord is with his people in all the various seasons of their lives, even in those times when the press and pull of life seems to sap the desire for spiritual things. It is a wonderful truth that God never leaves nor forsakes those he has set apart in inherit eternal life in Christ. I believe this, but do I live out of this belief?

"I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24)

Less than a week to go.

After months of planning, the date of our departure for Alaska is now very near - less than a week away. Our family has lived in Norman, Oklahoma for just over 3 1/2 years now. In that time, we've added two children (our "Okies") and one dog. So, we are leaving a bit bigger as a family, and a bit more tired and stressed as parents.

As excited as we are about this opportunity for service up north, there are some things I am going to miss about living in Norman. It goes without saying I will miss the friends we have made here. The hardest part about moving away is saying goodbye to them. But, other than friends, here are some things I'll miss (in no particular order):

1. Golf in January. I'm pretty sure this is out of the question in Alaska. However, I was told there is a golf tournament held each winter up there on a frozen lake.

2. OU football. We never actually got to see a game, but it's been fun to root for the Sooners.

3. Rusty's frozen custard. Next to Ted Drewes in St. Louis, the best I've had.

4. Oklahoma Redhawks baseball. Nearly everywhere we've lived, there has been a minor-league baseball team to watch. Great professional baseball at a fraction of the cost of going to the big-league parks.

5. Convenience galore. We live 2 minutes from the mall, the bank, the vet, Sam's Club, Blockbuster, Borders, Kinkos, Starbucks, a grocery store, and a gas station that sells cheap gas. We're about 5 minutes from Wal-mart and a host of restaurants too many to list. We've enjoyed having almost everything we need practically next door.

These are just a few things that come to mind. When you include the friendly people, a person could a lot worse than making Norman his home.

I do believe the Lord in his providence is calling me to serve the church in Wasilla, and is leading our family to live and minister there. So, I am very excited about the move, and am looking forward to beginning my gospel labors there. It's just that I'll miss some of the little things about life in Norman.

Heaven.....Boring?

Once a week, I meet with a friend, Bob, at Starbucks to discuss 25 pages or so of the "Institutes of the Christian Religion" by John Calvin. Before Bob arrived I read the following quote on my cup of piping-hot Columbian:

The Way I See It #230

Heaven is totally overrated. It seems boring. Clouds, listening to people play the harp. It should be somewhere you can't wait to go, like a luxury hotel. Maybe blue skies and soft music were enough to keep people in line in the 17th Century, but Heaven has to step it up a bit. They're basically getting by because they only have to be better than Hell.

—Joel Stein, columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

Now, it isn't worth getting too out of joint about Mr. Stein's thoughts on celestial matters. It's a catchy blurb on a coffee cup and is surely not meant to be a serious reflection on Christian teaching. It's short and provocative, perfect reading material for the caffeine-addled.

Maybe Mr. Stein has reflected on the Scriptures' teaching on heaven and hell, has carefully studied Christian theology, and has arrived at this mature view point after much thought and consideration. That could be the case. Or, it could be that he has just accepted the cartoon versions of heaven and hell without seeing much need to investigate matters further since no thinking person really takes such notions seriously. It seems like this is more likely the case.

To be honest, I have to agree with him. That is, if heaven is just lounging around on the clouds, listening to harps, and pruning one's wings from time to time, I'm definitely not interested! That does sound boring.

Leaving alone the unfair suggestion that the 17th-century was populated entirely by dolts, Mr. Stein's understanding of what heaven is all about is seriously mistaken. The Bible's focus on the life to come is not an ethereal existence in the clouds, but resurrection life in a renewed creation. It is a place where God brings to complete fulfillment all that life on earth was meant to be, and more - joy, peace, love, laughter, and the eternal enjoyment of the company of other people and God's creation. In contrast to the cartoon version of heaven and hell, the real living - the real partying! - is going to be in the former, not the latter.

Most of all, heaven is the place where Christ will be present in the midst of his people. For anyone who has come to know him, and the eternal life he freely gives, there is no other place he'd rather be than in his presence and worshipping him. For the believer, heaven, whatever it is, is where Christ is present.

I suppose staying in a luxury hotel for all eternity wouldn't be so bad. Especially if there is cable. But I'm afraid that if that is one's notion of heaven, the real thing would be a big disappointment.

"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11).