We’re Going On An Adventure!!! (New Zealand 2019)

We’re going on an adventure, and I couldn’t be more excited.  You see.  It’s kind of a dream come true adventure, the kind this homebody never quite thought she would go on, but here it is.   We bought the tickets 8-9 months ago, and now we’re going to. . . . New Zealand.   

I’ve been learning a lot lately about adventures, about saying ‘Yes’, about not missing opportunities with your loved ones.   

I’ve been learning. 

life is short

family is precious 

God’s timing is perfect

don’t hold grudges 

the best way to live life is with an expectation of God doing amazing things 

don’t worry about tomorrow.  Tomorrow might not come.  But God’s grace is sufficient is for today.

smile more.  laugh often. cry when you need to.  

Read God’s Word.  There is so much comfort, conviction, and truth there.

Colossians 3:1-4, ‘If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.’   

This year has been hard.  We’ve lost some very dear friends.  Just this morning I heard of a young man who has 2 children and a sweet wife, who died in a car crash, and it shook me.  So that’s why this trip to New Zealand with my younger sister is special.  I want to treasure this time in a way I haven’t treasured trips before.    

It reminded me that none of us are promised tomorrow, and I need to focus my eyes on Christ Jesus and His resurrection hope and joy that He brings.   There is no hope without Him beyond this world, in this world.   

So go out.  Live full.   Hug hard.   And keep looking ahead to the hope that is in Christ, the One that made reconciliation to God the Father possible.   

HUG HARD.  FORGIVE (knowing) that you have been forgiven by the God of the Universe.

Trust Jesus because He’s the only hope.  

Pray for the work of the Holy Spirit when you can only see spiritual dryness in your life.  

Acts 3:19-21, ‘Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.  And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:  Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.’   

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 ,’Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.  And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.  And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.’   

I hope I can check in with all of you about New Zealand and all of our adventures ‘down under’, but until then, may this verse fill your heart.

Psalm 27:4, ‘One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.’   

What’s been your favorite summer trip ever?

Have you ever been to New Zealand?