During the trip, however, it didn’t take long for God to be pushed aside. The RV became more like a traveling locker room, in language, attitude and smell. After 10 hours on the road and an entire day on the golf course, the supposed focus of our trip – God – had barely been mentioned. That evening, someone hatched an idea to head south to Las Vegas instead of staying in St. George for another golf day. Vegas was so close, so easy to get to, so tempting. But if we hadn’t made the Lord the focus of the trip up to this point, we sure weren’t going to now.
Until, of course, He stepped in.
While making a 50-point turn at a gas station, Todd caught the back corner of his RV on a concrete post, partially tearing the rear wall away from the rest of the vehicle. Daylight shined clearly through three of the four sides along the perimeter, meaning we were stranded until it got fixed. Tempers flared, and frustration boiled over.
God forced us to stop and reconsider why we were supposed to be on this trip. Before the Lord leads us beside quiet waters and restores our soul, He makes us lie down in green pastures (Psalm 23:2-3, my emphasis). Oh, He made us lay down all right, so that we had nowhere to go, no way to get anywhere, and nothing to do, until we asked Him to join us. Our quiet waters and green pastures were outside of an RV repair shop in the middle of the desert. While waiting for the rear end to be re-attached, we finally got together, apologized to each other and to Him, and invited Jesus along for the trip home.
On the way back, we had some fellowship, some reflection, some study, and sang some songs while Steve played guitar, like a mini retreat. Just the way God wanted the trip to be in the first place.
