Dear friends,
As I write this to you, I am on my way to the annual Diocese of Ohio Clergy Conference (thank goodness for speech-to-text tech!). It’s about a 3 hour drive from Toledo to the conference center.
I’ve always enjoyed long road trips, even as a young child. My family would often take long road trips. My mom and I, in particular, would regularly drive from Louisiana to Iowa to visit my aunt and her family. I came to treasure those times because they were some of the most important times when mom and I could really get to know each other better. Our relationship would deepen as the miles ran beneath us. Now, as an adult, Michael and I also enjoy taking long road trips. As much as we both love music, we often find ourselves riding along with the radio silenced – just to talk with one another; to spend some quality time together.
Road trips are about building relationships. Certainly, it’s about bringing people together from one place to another; but the relationships can also be built on the trip itself as we’re riding along. Nowadays, when I’m alone on the road, I often use this as time for intensive prayer. Prayer isn’t always with your head bowed, and your eyes closed. A lot of times, prayer isn’t much more than deep thoughts. It’s about talking to God like you talk to your loved one in the passenger seat next to you. Again, it’s about building relationships and about deepening bonds. Our relationship with God needs that as much as any of our physical relationships do.
Soon it will be Memorial Day – a day that many people think of as the sort of beginning of summer (even though the summer season is still weeks away). If your summer calendar has you taking a road trip sometime this year, I invite you to turn the radio off for a few minutes and listen to the people around you. If you’re fortunate enough to be alone for a while, spend some time deepening your relationship with God. Talk with God just like you’d talk with a dear friend or a treasured loved one. God wants to hear what you have to say. And, if you embrace the silence long enough, you might just hear what God has to say.
Blessings,
Jon+