Why Road Trips Bring Wisdom

I remember looking out the backseat glass of my mom's moving station wagon, watching cornfields move by. Sometimes the cornfields would turn into soybean fields and then back to cornfields again. The perfect alignment of their rows created alignment in my thoughts. The rows looked different when planted on a hillside, this required different thinking.

Periods in the car are great opportunities to sit in stillness. Sitting in stillness brings wisdom. With hotspot wifi, xm radio, built in DVD players and more in our cars, it's easy to continue the cycle of business and stimulate ourselves with gadgets. Without the radio, we can usually resist the urge to sing and participate in quiet observation. Our family observes a quiet time on our way to church each Sunday. I'm not sure what my kids are thinking between the "Are we almost there?", "Stop hitting me!" and "________took their shoes off" interruptions. I know their lives are lived in a constant state of distraction and I want them to see the cornfields as I once did as a child. 

In rare moments I have the opportunity to sit in silence in my moving van, on a road trip without children. At these time, I once again, I feel like myself, my true inner child self with thoughts aligning and wisdom budding. I've even written a few songs on my road trips! (see post "What Gives Me Faith"). As the landscape changes out the window, I discover my inner-landscape. If you are searching, I encourage you to get in the car alone and drive without radio or cell phone. The quiet observation out the front pane will bring you wisdom. You might find God brings a song to your heart too!

Deadspace is Sacred

Deadspace is an entertainment faux pas, Lord forbid we miss .025 seconds of digital screenshot stimulation.  We had a blizzard this week and my street is deadspace.  Looks pretty peaceful out there and sounds peaceful too!  I never realized the noise of passing vehicles until they weren't there.  Deadspace is sacred and I need some things to die for me to hear and see! Deadspace is the hallmark of meditation, perhaps this is why the corpse pose is recommended?  I hear God and grow the most from deadspace.   Jesus had to enter deadspace to complete a divine work for all people and one of the greatest recorded messianic miracles involved resurrecting a friend from deadspace (John 11:43-44).  Lazarus had to be dead for the miracle to be so phenomenal.  The apostle Paul was blessed with much deadspace to do his work while "doing time" (Philippians 1:13).  You get my point: Deadspace is sacred!  Unfortunately our natural tendency is to resist deadspace, this time when God does a great miracle in us.   I sometimes wonder if God will judge our character based on our reaction to the deadspace of the Windows 7 spinning circle.  Deadspace...

















annoying and peaceful and important and sacred all together!   So what was your reaction to the short deadspace or did you even bother to scroll down?   Next time you are annoyed by deadspace, or impatient with that red traffic light, remember, God might just be trying to do a miracle in you!