FROM SEA TO SEA . . . days 1-3

It felt so sweet to see him that first night. Just talking, eating cheesecake, laughing, and being together.

We ended up matching that day - it made me smile. : - )

Mississippi's welcoming center. Free soda and coffee. Hmm . . . nice people. Humid weather.

The saga of traveling across the country has begun.

We started the drive off in Tampa, FL and finished the first day in Greenville, SC where I got to see my bro. Our day of hiking, eating milk shakes, and talking went by quickly. My shower drug on last night as counted the days until he would be home at Christmas and strangely missed him even as I stayed one more night just a mile from his college campus.

From there, we began at 4am this morning driving to Arkansas. I honestly like these southern states. Very pretty and green. A lot of the buildings are brick and everything feels traditional and even a little old fashion. Traveling from South Carolina - to Georgia - to Alabama - to Mississippi - to Tennessee - to Arkansas took about 16 hours today.

My poor tired husband is fast asleep. Laundry is finished . . . I still would like to know what is up with the dryers in hotels. My clothes never look half as wrinkled when I do laundry at home. I wash clothes on road trips purely so that they do not stink. There is no doubt that they look none the better for being laundered. Oh well . . .

This road trip is so starkly contrasted with the road trip that we took for our honeymoon. (Everyone is chuckling and saying, "Yah honey, this trip isn't pure fun, eh?") But I am actually having the time of my life but this time not because my thoughtful husband oversaw every detail. I expected to have fun on that trip, and I did, but expectations kill the surprise of joy.

It is all a contrasting perspective that the Lord has been echoing in my life over the last week. I keep hear Him persistently whisper, "Allison, this life is not about you."

The last trip was my honeymoon. I had just had my beautiful wedding and married the man of my dreams who I had no doubt would make me happy. Yes, most everyone that I respected was in favor of our marriage and admired the fact that we loved each other. Another feather in my cap. Life was going my way in a world that I thought was all about me.

Luke and I have always prayed that God would do whatever is necessary to draw us closer to Himself. Ew . . . be careful what you pray for. Our first two months of marriage have drawn out every wicked motive that I did not even know I possessed. God has broken me. And at times He seemed to be grinding me to powder . . . but only until I bowed the knee and humbled myself before Him.

Is life truly such an oxymoron? Strive to make yourself happy - and find yourself in misery. Live to serve those around you - be filled with joy that is unknown to the rest of the world. When God's grace actually allows me to put myself aside for a five minute segment of a day I find myself walking on air, surprised by any pleasant happening, and filled with this "secret joy" that I know is only made to give me a glimpse of the life that is to come.

Somehow I imagine heaven being filled with such a joy; not filled with reflection on what I have done and how many rewards I stored up for myself. But just a longing to have more that I may lay more at my Savior's feet. That I may serve Him in a place where time circulates in a never ending cycle of beauty.

I long to weep at His feet in the wonder of selfless joy.