I uploaded this early because today, Gary and I are flying to Chicago. We will show up at the airport around 7:00 AM which means it’s a very early day!

And because we travel home next Wednesday, that post will be uploaded today, too. Because of those logistics, I will enter the winners for these two weeks in the comments, not in the posts themselves.

School is now out, so in the minds of most it is now summer. We know it doesn’t officially begin until June 21st (which happens to be Father’s Day this year and part of the Juneteenth weekend), but it’s warm enough and buggy enough to call it summer. That means that many people are traveling. Whether they’re going to see family, like we are, or vacationing, or kids heading off to camp, people do a lot of moving from place to place this time of year. The odds of adverse weather getting in the way of their plans diminishes (no snowsqualls in June usually) and the calendar is a bit freer without school and its related activities.

Traveling can be fun and stressful. It can be fun to see new places or to revisit old places that you don’t get to see as much because of the pull of life and schedules. It can be fun to do things not part of your routine and see or meet people you don’t interact with on a daily basis.

But it can be stressful because it’s not the norm. Your clock gets thrown out of whack with both the moving around and being in unfamiliar spaces. You get uncomfortable not knowing the plans for the day and/or knowing that so many things related to the traveling are out of your control. Planes can be delayed. Highways can be backlogged. Events can be canceled. How you roll with the glitches determines whether your travels will be remembered as good or bad or somewhere in between.

This is such an easy topic to translate to our spiritual journey!

We are traveling upon this earth, our temporary home, and heading to our permanent home in heaven. The online concordance offers over 200 references to walk and most of these are about how you live your life. Don’t walk in the way of sinners. Walk through the valley. Walk in the light of God’s truth.

There are also a handful of references to running. Don’t run after other gods. Run the race God has given you. Run with your eyes on Jesus. Run with purpose.

Usually, if we’re moving, if we’re traveling towards our goal, the voyage feels purposeful. There’s a reason for what we’re experiencing, good or bad.

Today, when we get through security, we will have to wait. As we have things scheduled, it will probably be an hour before we can board our flight. But, as anyone knows, the hour can extend if the plane is late in arriving or needs any repairs. Then, we just have to wait until everything is resolved.

We don’t like that part of traveling, physically or spiritually.

But my concordance has nearly as many references to waiting, particularly waiting on God, as it does to walking with Him. I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. (Psalm 130:5) But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:25)

It can be easier to wait if we sense the reward. For instance, if you smell the meal cooking, you eagerly wait to taste it. But so much waiting as we travel is vague. We don’t know why we’re waiting. We don’t understand why this part of the journey has been put on pause. And we wait for the call.

“Boarding, next destination now boarding.”

I remember the first time I tried to write a blog.

One of the homeschool organizations or publications that I was a regular contributor to or member of (honestly don’t remember which) put out an announcement. “We need contributors to our new website and blog! Come on, adventurous souls! Who knows how your contribution might benefit both you and the homeschool community? If you promise to attempt a blog, we’ll give you your own blog address on our website.”

Some descriptions followed, but no examples. Still, it didn’t sound complicated and I was a writer after all. So, I sent in my request.

A couple of days later, I received confirmation along with instructions. First, I had to log onto their website. Then I had to scroll down to find my blog address. It took me nearly an hour of tapping around to find my actual page.

This was early in the days of blogging. I was in my current home, so it was after 2003 but it had to be before 2006. The blog page looked very much like a form template you see on a medical website that hasn’t been updated in fifteen to twenty years. I wrote about 250 words (too short, but I didn’t know that) and attempted to post. That took about another hour. The instructions didn’t mention that something had to be written in every single block whether relevant or not.

But finally, I had uploaded my first blog.

Crickets. Beyond crickets. Not even the website acknowledged that I had met my end of the bargain.

I never submitted another post to that site. And frankly, I doubted the value of writing a blog. If the purpose of it is to share information, what use is it if the words disappear into the ether?

If you had asked me then, I would’ve said I would never write another blog.

But now, with this website, I’ve been writing a blog for over a decade. (It will be 13 years on November 29th.) I started because my publisher said it was a good way to keep up a steady online presence. I kept it up because I liked the routine of it and the feedback from all of you. Every week, I have a Wednesday deadline. Every week, I write (or have written) at least 500 words on a topic that is either related to writing, faith, homeschooling, personal growth, books, or host a guest blog. I try to write about or include posts that are useful to me in the hopes that they minister to others.

Some weeks, the only writing I accomplish is the blog. Other weeks, it is a small portion of the effort. And, of course, everything in between. There have only been a handful of times that I’ve reused a previous blog, like if I’m sick or suffering a migraine.

Using the 10-year mark and the minimum of 500 words, that’s over 260,000 words posted online. Wow. That’s about 1000-page book.

And that doesn’t include my guest posts on other author or writers group websites.

Seeing that statistic, knowing what a little weekly faithfulness has given as a result, encourages me to work on my other projects and deadlines. Who knows? If I can be as faithful with them as I have been on these pages, maybe my dream of over one hundred books isn’t as farfetched as I thought.

And if you feel so led, pray for that dream of mine! And if you have a dream on your heart, let me know and I’ll pray for that, too.

This week’s winner is Ann. Ann, you’ve won your choice of one of my available paperbacks and one play or monolog copy. Please email me about your choices!

Both for Bible Study and for Sunday School, I’ve done some substituting lately. I like pinch-hitting for the designated teacher. As I pondered it, I tried to comprehend why I enjoyed it more than being the go-to teacher. Eventually, I came up with a few reasons. (If I hadn’t, there wouldn’t be this post!)

1. It’s temporary. While it always involves work that isn’t part of my regular schedule, I know that it has a start and end date. Just knowing that it won’t be permanent helps me breathe a bit easier.
2. Taking on someone else’s job allows me to try out techniques and materials that I wouldn’t normally. It gives me access to new ideas or new-to-me ideas that broaden my world. Perhaps this is why I like tutoring… It’s like ongoing pinch-hitting. I both get to see how teachers prepare their students and come up with other ways to help those same students learn. I also get to try my memory at facts and methods that I haven’t used in a decade or more. It’s a win-win-win.
3. It’s helpful to someone else, so it makes me feel useful. While I know that I’m useful in my God-given gifts and duties, sometimes it can feel just part of the everyday. Boring and expected. So when I step in to help someone else, it’s out of the norm and gets noticed. Everyone likes to feel noticed and appreciated from time to time.
4. It helps me see the big picture, how we all work together.

And all of those things also correspond to life on earth as a lover of Jesus.

1. My life is temporary. It may involve unusual work, or calls upon my days in service to my Lord. But it has a start and an end date. I am not expected to do everything or be everything and that should let me breathe a bit easier. God’s got this!
2. Taking on Jesus’ job allows me to try out new things and grow more like Him. It helps me see how He teaches us and pass those lessons on to others. I also get to learn and grow throughout the process. Win-win-win!
3. It’s helpful to those around me, so I should feel useful. Even if no one else notices how I’m helping, I take comfort that my Lord does. And following God’s example is never boring and expected!
4. Last, but not least, it helps me see the big picture, how we all are part of the body or Christ.

Therefore, I’m going to enjoy it whenever I get to do something temporary to help another part of the body of Christ. I know that, through it, God is making me better!

How has God used each of you in a temporary role to help out those around you? Did that job stay temporary or were there positions and tasks you decided to take on full-time? I’d love to hear about how God has used you!

This week’s winner, of a copy of one of my plays and my last copy of Tyranny of the Urgent is Kathryn. Kathryn, email me at [email protected] to find out which plays you can choose from and to give me your new address.

All of you who commented have earned your first entry in my summer giveaway. And thank you for continued blog ideas!