Lessons

While traveling from Iowa to North Carolina the miles melted away as Hunter and I listened to Shadow Divers on 5 compact discs. The story chronicles the true adventure of two Americans who risked everything to solve one of the last mysteries of World War II. They accomplished this feat by scuba diving extreme depths in frigid water battling treacherous currents all while exploring a mystery submarine. Since Hunter and I understand the particulars of the sport this story was fascinating. Woven throughout the story the author details the backgrounds of each of the lives of the two men: John Chatterton and Richie Kohler. At one point we learn that Chatterton has spent time in Vietnam and during a 6 month field operation he learned some valuable lessons, which in his words: "gave him further insite into the right way to live and distilled certain principles or truths". I wrote these down because I thought them worthy of future reference.
1. If an undertaking was easy someone else already would have done it.
2. If you follow in someone else's footsteps you miss the problems worth solving.
3. Excellence is born of preparation, dedication, focus, and tenacity. Compromise on any of these and you become average.
4. Every so often life presents a great moment of decision-an intersection where a man must decide whether to stop or go. A person lives with these decisions forever.
5. Examine everything-not all is as it seems or as people tell you.
6. It is easiest to live with a decision if it is based on an earnest sense of right or wrong.
7. The worse possible decision is to give up.

After thinking about these life "lessons" and how they affected Chatterton's scuba experiences, I want to become more aware of the "lessons" I'm learning "On the Road".
LESSON #1 I Samuel 16:7b "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

In one of the first campgrounds we stayed with our motor home we were directed to a grassy site adjacent to a run down older trailer with a rusted pickup parked a few feet away. My immediate thoughts were ones of disappointment bordering on disgust. I envisioned late night drunken parties with offensive music and barking dogs. Needless to say I wasn't "neighborly" the two days we were located there and learning we would move to a cement slab in another part of the campground, I was happy. The day we prepared to drive the RV out of our spot was full sunshine in contrast to several previous days of rain. As Hunter started the motor I was anticipating dry cement with new neighbors. My balloon was quickly deflated as our back tires spun in the mud. With all of our technical gear in play as we rocked back and forth we didn't move. Suddenly excited voices began to come from the adjacent trailer. As I looked out the window I realized that a man and two small children (less than 7 years old) were grabbing buckets and filling them with gravel from the road. They motioned to Hunter to stop rocking long enough for them to empty their buckets and dump the contents under the back tires. They repeated this process several times and finally the tires grabbed the rock and we popped out of the giant hole we had just created. As Hunter drove the RV to the next spot I humbly walked over to the trailer expressing my gratitude and finally introducing myself. Our conversation lasted a considerable amount of time. As I walked to the new site I thanked God for the "slap in the face" and vowed to spend more time getting to know this lovely family, which we did in the month we were located in that campground. One night over a shared meal we discovered they were fellow believers! I am now trying to give up my "judging judy's robe" and instead promise God to "close my eyes" and open my heart at future campgrounds!

On a lighter note: watch Christian experience his first watermelon!