Have you ever been on a journey, a coddiwomple journey?

Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

Have you ever been on a journey, a coddiwomple journey?

When I was a kid growing up in northwestern Kansas, way northwestern Kansas, so northwestern that you can't get anymore northwest and still stay in northwest Kansas. The little town that caused me to grow up in northwest Kansas was 14-miles from Colorado and 27 mile from Nebraska. the little farm that my father rented was right at 14-miles west of the little town. When I went outside I was almost in Colorado. The funny thing was it looked just like northwest Kansas, but so did Nebraska for that matter. 

One of the things my father loved to do was go for a drive. He would load mom and all the kids into the 1966 ford pickup truck, which was quite a feet in itself. Mom and dad had four kids, so if my math is right, and it always is (ok Tony Stark) we had 6-people smooshed into the cab of the truck. Back in those days we didn't have extended cabs, or crew cabs, no we just had cabs. 

The loading procedure went something like this:

1. First dad would get in behind the wheel (He was the driver)
2. Then I would get in.
3. Then my sister Kate would sit on my lap.
4. Then my sister Mary would get in and sit next to me.
5. Then my sister Sara would sit on Mary's lap.
6. Then mom would get in, she would have to stand up turn slightly with her head out the window, and slam the door shut. Once the door was shut she could do a wiggling motion until she had safely placed herself, kind of, on the seat. 

I am sure you are wondering why I would get in second and not mom. Well, there were two reasons for this:

1. I was the shifter. yep, you guessed it it was a four on the floor ford pickup truck. we were so smooshed together that dad couldn't move his arm to shift so that job fell to me. The shifter had a big black knob on the end with the shift pattern written on it (in case I forgot). Boy oh boy, did I hate second gear!
2. If we put mom in second they would eventually get into an argument, she would bring out her wooden spoon, and things just got gnarly from there. I never could figure out where she had that spoon, and how she could get to it at all, smooshed together like we were. Most of the arguments started like this, "Kids roll up the window, I see an oil well coming up."

Once we were all settled in, dad would take off on the drive. His goal was to get lost. This is really hard to do in Kansas. Did I mention Kansas is flat? Later after I had graduated, and went to college, I was living on the seventh floor of the dorm. I looked out my window and there was my house. I had a buddy that lived on the other side of the dorm, when I went to visit him I looked out his window and there was my dog, still running away. I think he was in Missouri by then.

Anyway, dad would drive with great intent. a purposeful manner if you will, but we never knew where he was going. 

At the end of the ride we would be back on the farm and unload. Usually, this meant that mom would open the passenger door and we would all fall out onto the ground. Our legs had gone asleep hours ago. 

We had been on a coddiwomple journey.

"What is a coddiwomple journey," you ask?

The definition of a coddiwomple journey is, "To travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination."

As I thought about this I began to ponder, mainly because that is what I do, about my journey with Christ. As I walk with Christ through this life, I am on a coddiwomple journey. You say, "Wait a minute, don't you know you are going to Heaven?" I say to you, "I have faith that I will go to Heaven." What is the definition of faith? Faith is defined in, "The belief in something yet unseen." I  have no idea what Heaven is going to look like, all I know is it will be better than I can ever imagine. While I know something about heaven it is still vague, at least to me. 

A coddiwomple journey.

What kind of a journey are you on?

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

Roger

Oh yes, I found that coddiwomple can also be spelled coddiewomple, take your pick of how you would like to spell it.