More EXCITEMENT!

I was thinking on Fiver’s and my morning walk a little while ago, of the many things that have brought EXCITEMENT into my life over the past 70 years.  One of my first remembrances as a child was our summer camping adventures with my family.  I enjoyed just about every aspect of those vacations… Okay… maybe not so much when we got home and had to unpack the car and store away the camping equipment into the attic racks in the garage.  What I recall the most about those times was my dad’s irritability and his relatively short range of patience… which was unusual for him… as we kids dragged our feet and didn’t want the vacation to end. 

But later in life, after I began to walk in his shoes, and experienced coming home with our four kids after a week of non-stop activities and a six-hour drive home from camping… I rather found myself acting out with the same impatient behavior as my dad!  Funny how things come back to haunt you!

I remember one time in particular when my mom and dad took us to spend a week camping at DL Bliss State Park on Lake Tahoe.  The park did not take reservations at that time and was on a first come, first serve basis.  So, with that in mind, my dad planned for us to leave a few hours before the break of dawn, in order to get there bright and early and be first in line to grab a vacant campsite!  My greatest remembrance of that vacation was the EXCITEMENT bursting in me throughout the previous day and the early hours of the day we left. 

What an adventure!  Going somewhere I’d never been, driving in the dark and finally catching a view of the magnificent Pine forests as the sun began its climb through the trees and glimmer off the pristine, clear waters of Lake Tahoe!

And you know?  That EXCITEMENT never left me in my adult years as we would pack up the station wagon… looking a little like the Beverly Hillbillies*… and drive away from our home, and head toward the pine or redwood forests (depending on the park we were going to) with smiling kids and a beautiful wife enjoying the EXCITEMENT she observed all over the kid’s faces!

Needless to say, there were all kinds of adventures throughout my childhood and teenage years that brought EXCITEMENT into my life, with the highest attainment reached when I met my future wife at the beginning of our junior year in high school.  Our relationship brought the two of us into a great variety of EXCITING adventures throughout our 48 years together.  For me though, the pinnacle of that EXCITIMENT was Piper’s introduction to me of the life-changing, positively challenging, fun-filled and EXCITING Christian lifestyle that we dove into from practically day one!

Romans 12:11 in The Passion Translation encourages Christians to,

“Be enthusiastic to serve the Lord, keeping your passion toward Him boiling hot! Radiate with the glow of the Holy Spirit and let Him fill you with EXCITEMENT as you serve Him.” 

After Fiver and I returned from our morning walk today and I stood at the stove cooking breakfast, I got to thinking about the EXCITEMENT that Piper and I shared throughout our marriage.  I realized that we blended our Christian faith into just about EVERY aspect of our lives… from the mundane daily activities, to the growth and training of our four children, in the performance of our jobs, within the relationships we had with our extended families and even in the midst of our most intimate times together.

And for us… that is what made our lives to be EXCITING!  In Psalm 71:18 the Psalmist implores the Lord to,

“Give me grace to demonstrate to the next generation all Your mighty miracles and Your EXCITEMENT, to show them Your magnificent power!”** **

We made a decision very early in our marriage to not just observe the potential benefits of Christianity from the sidelines… that are promised throughout the pages of yours and my Bibles… … but to jump in and regularly practice and hone our faith… so as to be able to play on the field, as members of God’s first-string team, in the game of life!

And WOW!  What a life it has been… I can’t think of a more EXCITING way to live it… CAN YOU?

Have a terrific week and as you do… share the EXCITIEMENT of your faith with others.  After a week of C-O-L-D weather, I’m back to wearing shorts and enjoying temps into the high 70’s!  Yep… Life in Oklahoma can also be pretty EXCITING!

 

*I had to put air shocks on the Pontiac wagon in order to level the car!  Otherwise, the back bumper would have been dangerously close to the road!  Funny though… we never had that problem with the Suburban we finally purchased!

**The Passion Translation