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.
