We’re Nearly There! Lent Day 31

When we were little and going on holiday somewhere we had a delightfully annoying tradition of chanting ‘We’re nearly there, we’re nearly there’ for the final leg of the journey. If we were visiting my Gran in Umtentweni the chant generally began the moment we spotted a sliver of sea at Queensburgh. We would go strong until Pennington, the chant would transform into a strangulated whisper at Hidderdene and then it was action stations by the time we passed Sea Park. 

I remember heading off with a gang of Round Table families to camp at Mapelane one year. It was unknown territory and so we naturally assumed that the moment we turned off the tar road onto the dirt road our arrival was imminent. What transpired next spanned the equivalent length of the film ‘Gone with the Wind’. By this time it was getting dark, we were hungry and due to the bumps in the road the Hall’s stash of milk had spilt all over their tent in the boot  - a legacy of smell which would last for the entire holiday. 

But we just couldn’t give up our chant because we literally didn’t know which painful jungly bend would finally reveal our destination. So we doggedly carried on until at last we reached our dark, sandy campsite. 

I am 31 days into my 40 days of Lent blogging. Metaphorically speaking I’ve just spotted the sea. I’m nearly there. 

I don’t quite know how I feel about this though. One of the fruits of the spirit in the Bible is self-control. Which means that one of the ways to discover the heart of God is by practicing discipline. It takes self-control to devote oneself to anything that is ultimately going to make us better, healthier, more balanced people. Dieting, running a marathon, not gossiping, being patient with ones children all mean that one has to take the high road and we humans weren’t wired for this. We’re generally low roaders because the rewards are instant, if fleeting. But once we start making better choices for our spirits, minds and bodies we soon come to realise how much better we feel. And part of that good feeling is knowing that we have a choice in all things and in exercising the right choices we are honouring God’s gift of free will. 

For the past 30 days I have been inspired to harness a fleeting thought, a whisper, and put it into words. I often have moments like these but without the self-control of knowing that I have to write something everyday I would have let the thought go without truly chewing the cud and making sense of it. 

I haven’t been publicising my posts, my dear Stephen has shared some of the longer epistles, but there are many posts that are simply there to capture my days in words. If anything this blog is a gift to my children because they are too little to know ‘thinking Mom’ and I’m ashamed to say they mainly know ‘I’ve had a long day Mom’ at the moment. But one day I pray that they will discover my thoughts for themselves and that this blog will show them how much I love them and teach them how to find meaning in their day to day lives. Sometimes it’s the little things that show us the most. That’s why Jesus came to us as a very ordinary human. And He turned that very ordinary life into something spectacular, where every day meant something that would slowly change all our destinies. 

And so, as Jesus makes His way towards Passover in Jerusalem and models for us the greatest example of self-control mankind will ever witness my little voice travels in His shadow, we’re nearly there.