How to plan a trip……..

This morning I am putting together the itinerary for the Route 66 tour coming up in March.  Actually I started on it last January when I was planning to drive the same trip alone.  I rarely ever take participants to a place I have not been to, and know well.  The few times I have, I’ve regretted it.  So I’m  not going to make that mistake again!  I want to get double duty out of this blog post, instructional and spiritual.  So I will make each of the important points in both planning a physical trip and spiritual journey, in context.  Physical trip points in ORANGE  Spiritual in BLUE

Here is the plan:

1.  Determine a destination.   It is pretty hard to map out a plan if you don’t know what your ultimate goal is!  For the Route 66 trip I know that by Saturday night, I want to be in Henderson, Nevada (just south of Las Vegas).  I know my starting point for the group will be Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

In my spiritual life I have a destination in mind as well.  When the Lord calls me home I want to be exactly where He wanted me to be, at that moment.  Planning how to serve Him is a matter of trusting Him daily and taking the instructions given for that day or week.  Since my eternal home is already assured and all reservations made, I only have to trust Him day to day.

2.  Pick a route.  For our trip on Route 66 we naturally want to stay as close to Route 66 as possible, after all it is a Route 66 tour!!!!!  Now this is both easy and not so easy.  Most of the original Mother Road is now integrated into I-40 along the southern corridor.  Some sections of the actual 66 route are still around and we will drive over a good portion of those, but much of the in between stops driving will be on I-40.  This is good because a trip down only the existing parts of Route 66 would be a long slow journey, and we do have a time limit of about a week.

Our Spiritual route is pretty simple.  If the goal is to get to the destination, (Eternal life and to share our Lord with others), we must accept Jesus Christ as our Savior.  Trust in Him, and let Him guide us moment to moment.  It seems to simple but it really isn’t, it takes time to learn to know that He is there, and will not fail us.  We naturally want to work out the plan ourselves, but God doesn’t need our help, and the sooner we can relax in Him the better the journey will go!

3.  Calculate the Timing.  Before stating  trip if we know a starting point and the ending point we need to calculate how long it will take between those two points and figure out if our allotted time will allow the trip.  For the tour coming up, we are in great shape.  We start in Oklahoma City on a Saturday evening and end a week later (Saturday evening) in Henderson, Nevada.  That is 1,098.9 miles and we have 7 days to cover it with lots of stops!  So we only have to cover 181 miles a day!

If you are trusting God on your spiritual journey this one is super simple, trust Him with the timing. You know where you are now, He knows where you’re headed and ONLY He knows what He has planned for you between now and then.  Relax, He got this!!!!

4.  Prioritized your stops along the route.  On the Route 66 tour there are dozens of things I want my guests to see and get to photograph and experience.  Since I drove this exact route last year, and have already photographed all those sites, I know all about where to stop, how much time we can spend, and where some of the coolest things are to see!  Now there are many more things we could stop to see, but there is not time to see everything!  So, it is imperative that the stops be prioritized.  it is vital that we stop at the BEST places even if it means sacrificing some less important stops.

On a spiritual journey we need to keep in mind what our priorities are as well.  Since we will be trusting God with much of that journey, we need to stay close to Him, and that can best be done by time in prayer, (talking to Him and listening for His voice), reading the word, (the instruction manual for the Christian life), and fellowshipping with fellow travelers along this spiritual journey!

5.  Develop a good, workable plan.  On the Route 66 trip I know that we will have time to see a lot of great things, enjoy some killer food, and experience the rich history of the Mother Road, because we have a good plan, a plan that will allow time to soak it in, and not feel too rushed.  A plan allows for an overview of how we will use our time.

The most workable plan for a walk with Him, is to trust Him, listen for His voice and always be obedient.  It is a waste of your time to try and develop a “better” plan!  Trust me,  His plan is perfect and the sooner we submit to it, the more peace and joy we will have.

6.  Enjoy the journey.  Once you  know your destination, your route, know what stops you want to make along the way and have a good plan to be able to accomplish all that, relax and enjoy it!  The trip down the Mother Road is a trip back through History and it will remind us of what our lives were like over a  half century ago!  It will be a cornucopia of Americana subjects, and great and interesting people to meet.  the best way to make it great is embrace it, and enjoy the journey.

The best way to enjoy your spiritual journey is to simply TRUST!  God loves you more than you could ever know, He has provided everything you need, forgiveness, strength, courage, peace and joy.  All you need to do to enjoy the journey is give your heart and life to Him, and trust in His day to day, moment to moment plan for your life.

So I better get cranking the info to get out to my guests on the Route 66 trip!!!!

Blessings,

the pilgrim