Unique Word - Coddiwomple

When we travel, our trips are all planned out. I make the reservations and an itinerary. We know where we are going and what we are going to do when we get there. Charles determines the best route using Google maps on his phone and the car’s inboard navigation screen as a backup. We do like some spontaneity, but hate getting lost. 

There are times when living the RV lifestyle sounds very appealing. Load up the vehicle and take off for points unknown. In other words,

Coddiwomple --- “travel in a purposeful manner toward a vague destination.”

We have been traveling toward a vague destination with our company for the past fifteen years. Charles filed his patent for his drag-reducing devices in 2003 and we have been on the road to uncertainty ever since. The plan was to receive Federal Aviation Agency certification during 2017, but that got moved to April and now to June of this year. So, we continue to coddiwomple along doing what’s necessary to hit a moving target—like the proverbial rabbit running after a carrot on a stick.

Coddiwomple also reminds me of the Old Testament story of the Patriarch Abram in the book of Genesis. The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. (Genesis 12:1)

“So, Abram went as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.  He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.” (Genesis 12:4-5)

Abram received a major testing of his patience and faith. Abram and his wife were senior adults by today’s standards. They seriously disrupted their settled lives to follow God’s call, which is not something most of us want to do.  Not knowing where they were going or when they would arrive meant they had to trust the process and the One who sent them on their mission. Abram and his family arrived at their destination and they were abundantly blessed by God for their obedience.

And we are blessed today because he obeyed.  As Abram (later Abraham) occupied the land where God sent him, his family became the people of promise who centuries later would bear witness to the birth of Jesus. His life, death, and resurrection allow us to travel this life looking forward to not a vague destination but a heavenly one.