I don’t know about you, but I love a good road trip. There’s something really satisfying about covering large distances while listening to a great audiobook or inspiring music. I’ve always thought the point of a truly worthy road trip wasn’t just the destination, but the journey itself and the route by which you get there.
Last year our family took a three-week road trip through Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Over the years we’ve taken many road trips, but that was one of the all-time greats. We look back on it with the fondest memories—the wildlife, the berries, the friends, the midnight sun, the hiking, the camping, Landon’s twisted ankle (ughh!), swimming in the Arctic Ocean, getting lost in Finland, and, of course, the “destination”—the far north of Norway.
We’ll often say things like, “We have to do that trip again” and “Next time we’ll spend more time doing…”
But I’m 46 now. My boys are in their late teens. Soon they’ll be on road trips with their own families. This brings me such simultaneous joy and sadness. Joy for the life that lays ahead of my beloved sons, and sadness, of course, that a chapter of our family’s is likely nearing a close.Â
“I don’t believe in bucket lists, I want to do it all!”
I’ll be honest, it makes me mad. I’ve heard it said the problem with kittens is that they become cats. Chapters open—childhood, dating, marriage, children, grandchildren—and chapters close. It’s normal. And we need to continually remind ourselves not all even get these chapters, because death, disease, and disaster lurk like lions in the bush.
And yet I want to do more. See more. Experience more. I want to take a thousand more road trips. As author and philanthropist Bob Goff says, “I don’t believe in bucket lists, I want to do it all!”
When I reflect on these things, I’m reminded of Solomon’s spot-on observation that, “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
Eternity.
What a thought.
But eternity is what we’ll need to do it all and to see it all.
God made us that way. And I’m happy about it. I’m looking forward to heavenly road trips. What will they be like? What beauty will unfold? I don’t know, but I can’t wait.
It’ll be even better than Norway…
David Asscherick
David is a speaker/director for Light Bearers and ARISE co-founder and instructor. Since his baptism in 1999, David has traveled the globe preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. He and his wife Violeta are the happy parents of two boys, Landon and Jabel.
