{"id":227,"date":"2014-06-02T16:00:19","date_gmt":"2014-06-02T16:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simplymeandjeans.wordpress.com\/?p=227"},"modified":"2014-06-02T16:00:19","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T16:00:19","slug":"the-tone-of-our-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/?p=227","title":{"rendered":"The Tone of Our Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"path\"<\/a>I\u2019ve been consumed lately with thoughts of travel.\u00a0 There\u2019s no telling how many hours I\u2019ve spent researching hotels, activities and airline flights.\u00a0\u00a0 Honestly, if I got paid for it I would be doing pretty well right now; but the truth is, I just love it.\u00a0 I love reading about all the historical facts and interesting sites in a city.\u00a0 I love looking at pictures and researching the weather and the best hotels and restaurants. Heck, I think I love doing it as much, if not more, for other people than I do for myself. \u00a0\u00a0Researching all the ins and outs of a destination is almost as good as being there\u2026.almost, because I don\u2019t have to suffer through the ordeal of the actual travel.\u00a0 You know – the getting there part.\u00a0 Long hours waiting, being uncomfortable, no sleep, delays, boredom and often difficulties that no one could have anticipated.<\/p>\n

With all these thoughts of trips I\u2019m planning for friends and family, I was struck by a statement I heard the other day.\u00a0 \u201cThe destination of a trip determines its\u2019 tone.\u201d (Beth Moore Psalms of Ascent) I started thinking about the past year of my life and remembered a trip to the beach alone with my husband.\u00a0 A trip to Disney to celebrate a marriage and graduation with all our kids.\u00a0\u00a0 A trip to my home state of Louisiana for two funerals.\u00a0 Yes, I said two. In one day.\u00a0\u00a0 And I realized how true that statement is. The conversations were completely different on each trip.\u00a0 The mood was different. The expectation of arrival was completely different.<\/p>\n

Add to these (seemingly) random ideas the fact that my daughter and son-in-law\u00a0will have\u00a0\u00a0their first wedding anniversary tomorrow and you have a strange mix of thoughts.\u00a0 At first glance, they don\u2019t seem to be related, but I knew God was trying to tell me something.\u00a0 It was one of those mornings when I didn\u2019t really know what to write in my journal so I wrote everything.\u00a0 I mean everything.\u00a0 5 pages worth.\u00a0 (which explains why this post is so long, but I hope you will stick with me)\u00a0 Then, in some attempt to make sense of it all I went back through it to underline the high points in hopes\u00a0 that something would come together for me.<\/p>\n

It did, and it\u2019s beautiful.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure it will come across the way it played out in my brain, but I hope someone can relate.\u00a0 I hope someone is encouraged.<\/p>\n

We are on a journey.\u00a0 Every last one of us.\u00a0 We\u2019re walking through the travel part of our trip and sometimes it \u2018s hard. Sometimes it\u2019s boring. Sometimes it\u2019s full of sleepless nights and unexpected difficulties or delays.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes we feel like we are traveling through uncharted and scary territory alone and other times we feel like we are skipping through a meadow with our best friends.\u00a0 But make no mistake, the journey is not the destination.\u00a0 The destination is eternity.\u00a0 If we really know and trust Jesus to guide our journey, we\u2019re headed for an unbelievable eternity that will be spent with Him.\u00a0 In C.S. Lewis\u2019 book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, we see a prophecy that was spoken over a little, but fearless mouse named Reepicheep when he was a baby.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere sky and water meet,\u00a0Where the waves grow sweet,<\/p>\n

Doubt not, Reepicheep,\u00a0To find all you seek,<\/p>\n

There is the utter East.\u201d<\/p>\n

These words set the course and the tone for his life.\u00a0 His sole purpose was to reach Aslans\u2019 Land in the East (which would symbolize heaven) and\u00a0 he is fearless to that end – no matter what \u00a0difficulties come his way. \u00a0The tone of his journey was one of expectation and joy. \u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m afraid my eyes are often distracted by the journey and I lose much of that expectation, passion, purpose and joy that comes with remembering where I am headed.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m \u00a0headed for the most spectacular\u00a0 city ever built.\u00a0 Made of gems and precious stones.\u00a0 Perfect in every way with no crime, no pain, no fear and some awesome music.\u00a0 But more than that,\u00a0 I\u2019m \u00a0headed to a wedding.\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I have ever understood with such depth what that meant as I do now that I\u2019ve had a daughter to get married.\u00a0 For months previous to the wedding,\u00a0 we planned and organized and set things in place for the ceremony and the celebration afterwards.\u00a0 We thoughtfully decided on every detail so that it would be something that represented \u00a0their personalities.\u00a0 We spent our time and resources on it.\u00a0 And the day before the wedding ,\u00a0 one year ago today,\u00a0 I\u2019m reminded that my friends and family all put in long hours of work and sweat to help us pull it together.\u00a0 All because we love our daughter and we were so excited for the marriage that was going to take place. We had prayed for this man and this day her whole life and it was our joy to make it as beautiful as possible. \u00a0\u00a0And what did Haley do that day?\u00a0 She prepared herself.\u00a0 She got her nails and hair done.\u00a0 She spent time with her friends and worked out.\u00a0 She made sure that a journal she had started for her husband well before she had met him was ready\u00a0 to hand him at the altar. A journal that expressed\u00a0 all the hopes and dreams and thoughts \u00a0she had\u00a0 for him before they had ever laid eyes on one another.\u00a0 She probably looked at her \u201ctrue love waits\u201d ring and stood in awe that the time had come to know what that meant.\u00a0 All the times that she felt unloved and unnoticed didn\u2019t matter anymore.\u00a0 All the nights of tears over a broken heart or unrequited love were forgotten in the joy of knowing she was about to be his wife.<\/p>\n

And I am reminded that I am Jesus\u2019 bride.\u00a0 We are his bride.\u00a0 The church is His bride.<\/p>\n

Am I making myself ready?<\/p>\n

Here we wait.\u00a0 On this side of eternity. \u00a0Traveling closer to that destination with every inch we take through tears, laughter, joy, heartache and uncertainty.\u00a0 Even if we forget the destination,\u00a0 Jesus doesn\u2019t forget us and He always whispers to our hearts to remember our first love.\u00a0 To remember that he is waiting.\u00a0 If I can just keep that wedding in mind,\u00a0 this journey, no matter how difficult, will hold within it a joy and a hope that will never fade.\u00a0 It will give me purpose and cast out fear as I realize I desperately want something priceless to offer my groom when I get there.\u00a0 A journal of sorts, written in my actions and words, something that\u00a0expresses my love for Him.\u00a0 I long for everything I do on my way to point to that end.\u00a0 To look forward to what He is preparing right now. \u00a0Because never forget that He is preparing a wedding and a celebration the likes of which\u00a0we have never seen.\u00a0 A feast of every delectable food known and unknown to me.\u00a0 A wedding celebration that will finally bring us together and I want to prepare myself as best as I can.\u00a0 I want to travel this road lightly so that I can get their refreshed instead of weary. \u00a0I want to make myself beautiful for Him.\u00a0 But even then, I realize that anything I could offer Him is only possible because of His love in my life. Even though I want to prepare myself, and should, I remember that He has already made me beautiful. \u00a0And when we finally get to the end of our road, He will be standing there waiting.<\/p>\n

Even on the hardest and most stressful days before Haley\u2019s wedding, she didn\u2019t doubt that CJ would be there.\u00a0 When people disappointed her or things didn\u2019t fall in place I would simply say, “It\u2019s about the marriage.\u00a0 It\u2019s about you and him.” \u00a0She would refocus on her love and all other things became less important. The tone of the journey would once again be excitement.\u00a0\u00a0 And on March 2, at 4 in the afternoon, I watched two shabby doors open in the middle of a beautifully green pasture and she walked \u00a0\u00a0down an isle with her daddy \u00a0to a man that stood staring at her with tears in his eyes .\u00a0 Those tears changed my view of this journey forever. \u00a0I suddenly realized I am not the only one\u00a0looking forward to that day.\"164238_10151378356303231_1862401370_n\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All because God brought a Godly man into my daughter\u2019s life,\u00a0 I now understand\u00a0 what Jesus is looking forward to at the end of this journey we are on. \u00a0Me. \u00a0You.<\/p>\n

With tears of joy in his eyes I believe He will gaze at us in wonder as we walk through the doors of eternity straight into His arms and the Father will be watching with pride, love and contentment.<\/p>\n

And every step along the way will have been worth it.\u00a0\"cj\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been consumed lately with thoughts of travel.\u00a0 There\u2019s no telling how many hours I\u2019ve spent researching hotels, activities and airline flights.\u00a0\u00a0 Honestly, if I got paid for it I would be doing pretty well right now; but the truth is, I just love it.\u00a0 I love reading about all the historical facts and interesting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37,122,179,189,199,311,356,589,612],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","tag-beauty","tag-culture","tag-experience","tag-family","tag-fernweh","tag-journey","tag-memories","tag-travel","tag-wanderlust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}