Spiritual thoughts

The spiritual aspect of this trip was profound. First of all, we felt the power and blessing of your prayers every day, and for that we thank you. As I've mentioned many times, God blessed us with unbelievably superb weather throughout the trip. He kept us safe and healthy (except for two minor visits to the ER) and protected us from countless things that could have gone wrong.

So often in our busy lives it's hard to make room for God. Even if we take time for prayer, study, worship, and service, the communication is mostly one-way because we're immediately on to the next thing and often fail or forget to listen for God's voice. We're busy with work and family obligations, and in our free time we often live in a world of television, radio, iPods, Blackberrys, telephones, computers, and what have you. God could be screaming at us and we wouldn't hear him above the din.

Wayne and I were without TV, radio, newspapers, and except for occasional evenings, music, for 3½ months; four months ago, I would have panicked at the very thought (we thought we were equipped). Work was mostly limited to boat stuff, navigation, and trip planning, if you can call that work. Our only family obligation was to keep in touch, which we did by cell phone, email, and blog. Of course, there's no escaping electronics altogether, even at sea; the navigation and weather instruments are vital.

Without so many distractions, we learned what it really means to abide in Christ. He was our constant companion and we were always aware of his presence, often spending most of the day just enjoying our Lord's creation and our relationship with him, steeped in his love and peace. We were more "tuned in" to him, which allowed him to guide our travel and protect us to a degree that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. I experienced peace that could only have come from the Holy Spirit in the face of many hair-raising situations, scores of low bridges, and vast expanses of shallow waters. I experienced joy that I didn't even know how to express, and which also could only have come from Him.

Every day we were blessed and awed by the wonder of God's creation. The variety and beauty of birds, trees, clouds, winds, rocks, terrain, aquatic mammals and fish, sunrises and sunsets, flowers, land creatures, sea shells, water - and of course, homo sapiens - fascinated and delighted us as much on day one and mile one as they did on day 109 and mile 5,325.

God is good...all the time.

Stay tuned, there's more to come...