From the desk of Pastor John Johnston: 04-29-13

 Vacation or to not vacation… that is the question?

If you took a poll across the nation I wonder what the consensus would be. Should I go or should I not???  I was joking with some folks at church and was telling them that Tina and I would not go on vacation again… we would just take off time from work. I here you… your asking yourself, “What is the difference?” Well, a vacation is something that you plan and usually you map everything out to an agenda and it is supposed to be relaxing. (Yea wright) If you just take time off it is spontaneous, fun, no real direction, relaxing, fun, spontaneous, no specific time frame, fun, spontaneous… oh I said that already…

 Well whenever Tina and I have taken vacation something drastic has happened. The last vacation we took one was when Brandon was about 2 months old. That one ended quickly as Tina’s mother became very ill. Other attempts at vacations were spoiled by illnesses of our own. The problem is we have what’s called “Johnston’s luck”. I am not sure if the rest of my family has this type of luck but we got it bad. Even if we do manage to take off and go somewhere we will always have an eventful trip. Just ask our friends… J The Johnston luck is very much like Murphy’s Law, “If it can go wrong it most likely will”. Anyway, this year we decided to go on vacation but make it more like time off… you know spontaneous, fun, restful, fun, no direct plans, fun… just drive. This should be very simple correct?

Ok, for all of my family reading this let me set the record straight… Tina did not get sick on this trip… I will let her off of the hook early… (You’re welcome dear) Our trip started out pretty good. There was excitement in the air; there was a lot of chatting; talking about what we were going to see on this Route 66 trip, and how far we were planning to go before we turned back towards home. (Let’s see, no kids… wow, no kids? Who said we had to turn back… WE’RE FREE!!!!) It’s a good thing Publishers Clearing House hasn’t paid off. We may still be on the road… (Just kidding church family) You remember the story of the prodigal son? Well the thought of eating after hogs once we have squandered all our money away was not too appealing so we had to turn back… J

Well if you haven’t guessed it by now, it was me that got sick. I got the worst sinus infection of my entire life. But don’t feel sorry for us we pushed on like troopers. I was determined to make it to the Grand Canyon before I would give up. Besides why should Tina have all the fun, it was my turn… It is probably good that we didn’t make it any farther as if we would had made it to Las Vegas we may have had to call back here for money to get home…  Now I know that I am a preacher and should not even think of going to a town like that so, just for the record, it was Tina’s idea to go to Vegas, not mine. Hey, it might as well have been her idea… People can accept that the preacher’s wife is a heathen, but the preacher himself??? He better not… (Wives have all the fun) You remember the chatting and laughing and smiling you have when you first leave on a trip… well it is gone by the time you head home…

Seriously though… we all need to take time to recharge our batteries; we can run ourselves into the ground and for a lot of us it is not a pretty sight when we come to that crash landing.  This trip was magnificent, and God opened our eyes to a whole new experience in His greatness and His awesome infinite power. Matthew 11:28 says “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Sometimes you don’t realize that you need His rest until you find yourselves falling back into His arms and you shed tears of joy from His infinite love…

How about you, have you ran to your Father’s arms lately. They are still there and are waiting to give you the hug you need…

 “The Greatest Adventure in Life is seen Through the Love of Christ”

Bro John   501-262-0015