Today I traveled from the condo on Hilton Head Island to my Grandmother's place on Skidaway Island. According to the Great Circle Map, the distance from the condo to my Grandmother's is 19 miles as the bird flies (and yes I am a big enough geek to get the exact coordinates to figure that out). Yet, according to maps.google.com the travel distance is 56 miles and takes an hour and a half to drive (which it did).

So Andy's what's your point? Are you just complaining about the fact you had to go visit your grandma. Absolutely not! Visiting her was worth the journey. As I was driving along the local roads through South Carolina it hit me how bad the journey the Israelites made from Egypt to the "Promised Land" must have been. And you are probably thinking, wow, that point was lame. Thanks for wasting my time on the Blog. Britney being a good mom, sure, that was crazy, but at least you had a point (if you don't know what I am talking about read the next post).

But here's the real point. God still felt that making them go through that trip for 40 years was worth leaving the life they had in Egypt. And all along that trip, the recurring theme He had for them was remembrance. Everything was remember the way it was in Egypt, don't forget what happened to you, don't forget the oppression. And all they kept complaining about was the sun and the journey. Now I have been to the desert of their wandering and I can tell you, I couldn't last out there in an air conditioned bus, so I sympathize with their complaints. But the point is that God uses journeys like these because they constantly cause us to remember where He has taken us from. If the Israelites hopped right over to the Promised Land, they would just get on with life failing to reflect on what God has done for them. And frankly, with the high-pace life has on all of us, I think it would do us all a lot of good for us to have these journeys in our life. And while on the journey, it can be awfully frustrating, in the end, it is all about the journey of life...whether in the wilderness or on SC-170.