I have been going more than usual this summer.  I’ve been to Ohio for a few days on three different occasions and to New Jersey, Arizona, and California.  That’s a lot for someone who really just likes to be home.  However, the time has been restorative and fun– to be in another place and time.

Traveling mercies.  People in my church travel to faraway places often so it isn’t unusual for requests for traveling mercies– which I interpret as safe travel, getting there and back home without too much incident.  When I was a young single adult and went to visit my dad in another state, he would pray a brief prayer as I was going out the door for traveling mercy.  And I guess that was answered because I always arrived safely even when the brakes went out on my car and I drove using the emergency brake for almost 100 miles.

Even after all my years, I struggle with the idea. What does asking really mean?  I do believe that God is with us– always.  I cannot rationally explain why planes crash.

I’m rethinking traveling mercies.

I am always traveling.  Trying not to stay in the same place I’ve been. Giving up old habits that don’t serve me and taking up new ones that do. Traveling through difficulties that do get resolved in unpredictable ways, often unimaginable ways. The joy is that there is a presence of hope, of possibility, of safe traveling–even when it doesn’t feel safe– that is noticable through this life and even into the next…