Sunday Morning: A God Adventure

I had two choices yesterday morning.  One was to go to church, as I always do on Sunday mornings.  And that is precisely what I wanted to do.  We have a fabulous new preacher whose messages have been powerful for me lately.  I didn't want to miss that!  However, my best friend was participating in her first triathlon, and she had invited me to watch.  I knew she wanted me to be there, so I started praying about where God wanted me to be.      When the alarm went off in the morning, I did NOT want to get up.  I was bone tired, yet I could not go back to sleep.  Something (or more likely Someone) was nagging me to get up.  So I got up and got ready, but I was moving slowly.  I had aimed to get out the door by 6:45, but it was almost 7 when I did.  Heading down the road, I realized I forgot my coffee at home...catastrophe!  So I took a slight detour to McDonald's to grab some much needed caffeine.  One of my daughter's friends was working the drive thru window.  No one was behind me - not very many people up at that hour on Sundays, I guess - so we had to chat for a bit.   I was already running late, and it now appeared doubtful that I would get there before the start time.   I recently burned copies of our new pastor's sermons on CDs, so I popped one in on the way.   My spirits were lifted by the time I arrived, only to find I would have to park at least 1/2 mile away, and it was raining.  It was almost 7:30, and I knew if I ran to the park, I *might* get to see my friend before she got in the water.  I prayed again for direction and felt compelled to sit in the car and listen to the rest of the sermon.  So I did, which took about 10 minutes, and by then the rain had stopped.   I made my way to the park, thinking it would be impossible for me to find anyone I knew in the crowd of people, and dreading the thought of watching alone.  God took care of it.  The first people I saw were my friend's daughters and in-laws.  I enjoyed their company, and we had a lot of fun cheering and entertaining ourselves.   Shortly after we got there, my friend came out of the water.  She lit up when she saw me, and immediately I was glad I went.  When she had finished the triathlon, she hugged me and started crying.  She said it meant so much to her that I came.  I apologized for not being there before it started, and she said, "Oh, I'm so glad you weren't!  I was so emotional, I would have bawled if I saw you!"  God knew.   By the time I got back to my car, I thought I might still be able to make it to church.  I would probably be a little late, but I could slip in and stand in the back, and still hear the sermon at least.  I don't know why, but my car didn't head that direction.   I pulled out of my parking spot and was mentally thinking, I have to turn around to go back the way I came.  But for some weird reason, I didn't.  I started heading out of town on a road I didn't know.  It just looked really pretty, and I thought, well maybe I'll just take an exploratory drive.   Now, you have to understand, this is SO not me.  I have no sense of direction, I did not have a GPS or a map, and I had no clue where this road was going to take me.  This is terribly uncharacteristic of me, and I'm still a little surprised at myself.  I popped in another sermon and drove.   I was ridiculously rewarded by the view.  Stunning.  Weaving through the hills, there were gorgeous views on every side of me.  I started winding up one very high hill with tight turns and steep inclines.  I had no idea where I was going, but I was sure enjoying the ride.  At the top of the hill, the road narrowed to a very tight spot between basically two walls of rock.  It was really cool but a little scary!  At that moment, I recalled hearing something about a place called the Mindoro Cut.  Apparently that's where I was because eventually I ended up in Mindoro.    There I saw a sign for County Road D.  I thought, hmmmm, I'm not sure, but I think County Road D goes into Holmen.  I turned onto it and was soon on familiar roads.  I pulled into my driveway just as the second sermon was ending on my CD player.   I had read a devotional that morning before leaving home.  It was about joy, particularly the joy found in His presence.  I figured that meant I was supposed to go to church.  Obviously, I enjoyed His presence everywhere else I went.  I'm not quite sure how to describe how He directed me, or maybe it was that I wasn't trying so hard but just going with the flow.  The word "freedom" kept popping into my head on the drive.  Not sure what I'm learning right now, really, but I have to say, the morning was a great adventure.