Good morning, Baltimore!

No, I didn't belt that out Tracy Turnblad-style, but I certainly felt like it when I awoke to screams and cries of "my" kids one hotel room away.

The roughly ten-hour drive from Charleston to Baltimore should have been a nightmare....three kids, several pit-stops, DC traffic--but I was positively serene. Something about the methodic hum of rolling down the interstate, seas of trees or city lights or even nothing at all flowing by, and the tinker of some old tune on the radio sends me waltzing through a world of thought, the most tranquil, curious, thought.

I thought about comfort and decided to revisit a passage I once wrote on comfort (while I'm trapped at the hotel....baby's gotta nap sometime!).

How did these tangles even get here? It’s from comfort. That’s what tangles things. You sit there for a bit too long and before you know it, you’ve been tangled. Tangled up in something good, you say? Why, never! Conformity to treachery ain’t too far a leap. Comfort, comfort, comfort. We toil for a seat in Luxury’s lap, but we don’t realize how comfy our deathbed is gonna be. We don’t want you rolling in your grave, after all.

I suppose when one lives with people who are not one's family and who are at such different stage in life than one is, one ponders the future a good bit more than one should. I have tried so desperately to become a moment-liver (see my old post!), but I can't help but wonder, what will my husband be like, my kids, and my home?

There is one big benefit to all this future-thinking though! It allows me to do something that I do very well as the youngest of four mistake-making kids, and that is observational learning! I love my "parents" for the summer very much. They are generous and kind and have a great taste in music. Their life is not what I want for my future. I do not want to shop exclusively at J. Crew and sip margaritas while my kids play in the pool at the country club and go on couples' trips to Aspen.

 I say this with extreme caution, knowing that I could be perceived as judgmental or arrogant. I am guilty of the worst. I go about my day thinking of all the ways I can please myself. I have far too many clothes and like to eat fancy food. But that is not what I want in life. Please understand that this is coming from a place in my heart where God allowed a glint of the reflection of his everlasting light to shine most briefly.

In just a moment, I'm going to stop rambling. Here is my point: take a look at all the things that people try to satiate their every craving with--it could be anything from weed to new shoes to a promotion to the big office with the city view. They say--WE say, "I'm satisfied with this...for now," but this satisfaction is a fleeting thing. The world spins and designers make new shoes and CEOs lose their jobs  and the flying high comes crashing down. Our very earth moves every second. How many gods boast to be changeless? Try Hebrews 13:8 on for size.

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."