The Long Way Home

I remember. It was 47 years ago that I came to Atlanta from Washington DC where I was born. Struggling with addiction, pending divorce from someone who really loved me, leaving three beautiful children behind,  and full of PTSD, addiction, anger and uncertainty I arrived lost and alone.

This Friday I embark on a journey to return to visit my two remaining sons, one of whom is struggling with recovery from cancer. The 9 hour trip in my truck will certainly bring back many memories and allow time for thought and reflection. In the years since coming to the ATL miraculous things have happened and I am praying that would also happen to my son in his recovery.

What I know is that God uses every situation, every tragedy, every triumph to school us on who he is and what he wants us to do. Micah 6:8 relates that feeling directly to us:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God!

These instructions seem so simple but they take cultivating to put into action. 47 years of a roller coaster ride that pulled into God's station of life seemed like a second lifetime for me and it has taught me what is important, and it most certainly isn't my accomplishments, my possessions or my intelligence.

Family, Children, Grandchildren, Great Grandchildren, Friends, all these fall just below a relationship with the Lord but right into the wheelhouse of his will, they mean everything, they are to be treasured and nurtured so that future generations reflect those words in Micah that we should try to live.

I haven't always lived up to that standard but every day I have left on planet earth is another opportunity to get it right. Thank God he has never given up on me and that the redemption of Christ paid the price for our own redemption no matter how many times we have missed the mark.

Every day alive we have one more day to do the right thing, and to right the wrong thing from our past.  I am so ready for it because now I am in the stretch run of The Long Way Home!