Sweet Home Florida

Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us, “I heard your call in the nick of time; The day you needed me, I was there to help.” Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly. 2 Corinthians 6:1-4 (The Message)

We left Auburn, Alabama at 9:15 this morning which was really 10:15 in our time zone. While on vacation, our internal clocks were all messed up due to being in Central Time Zone. I woke up every day at 6:30 which my body thought was 7:30. I was even more mixed up at night when “late night” television shows that air at 11:00 at home were on at 10:00! When we drove to Chattanooga, we thought we were eating lunch at 1:00, but forgot we were back in Eastern Time Zone so were really eating at 2:00. I am too old for all that time tripping! Somewhere about noon today, we lost an hour and reentered the zone that we live in. That made the drive that should have been eight hours appear to be nine hours on the clock. It actually took longer because, for a change, husband gave me two “get off the Interstate and stop” passes! I used one at Fort Valley, Georgia to go to Lane’s Peaches and get a box of peaches to make cobbler for the 4th of July. I had hoped to get a bushel of corn, but their corn was forty nine cents an ear! Highway robbery. Literally! My second pass I used at Ellis Brothers “We’re Nuts!” in Vienna, Georgia to get some pecan and peanut products and some jams and jellies to give as gifts. Because most of our travel in North Alabama was by motorcycle, I hadn’t had the chance to buy any souvenirs. We ended up eating most of the chocolate covered peanuts and the pecan cookies on the way home! Tomorrow the diet begins again! But, before making the final leg home, husband got his way and we stopped at his favorite roadie restaurant, “Texas Roadhouse”. But, no matter how long we tried to prolong the vacation, we had to come home sometime. While we are glad to be back in our own house, coming home means cleaning house, doing laundry, sorting through mail and finding bills, getting up in the night with an incontinent dog and knowing that soon we will have to go back to work. Sigh. It was a great vacation. On the way home we talked about our favorite parts. Husband’s was the motorcycle ride around Lake Gunter. Mine was swimming at the waterfall. But, we both agreed, it was nice to have uninterrupted time together to reconnect. We will need to remember that the clock is ticking on this life journey just as it was on our return home today. While vacation affords us the luxury to focus completely on each other for a week, it will require balance and deliberate choices to continue making our relationship a priority. The same goes for my relationship with God. With time on my hands, it was easier to keep up with my daily Bible reading and prayer time. It all comes down to choices. Vacation might be over, but the journey has only begun.