let’s go, it will be perfect.

(photo credit: Elliott, age 3)

(again, photo credit to Elliott Quinn, age 3)

The good news is I figured out where they film all those cool east coast movies with the funky college town, beautiful views, and great houses.

Ithaca, New York.

Guys, we all need to pack up and move there immediately.

It’s that good.

I don’t know if it was my frame of mind, the complete exhaustion from going non-stop for the week before our trip, or the incredible beauty that surrounded me, but I got a lot of stuff figured out while in Ithaca.

And that was good for my soul.

We spent a lot of time hiking and playing in some pretty amazing state parks.  And being surrounded by such beauty, my mind kept coming back to that verse in Luke that says “I tell you,” he [Jesus] replied, “if they [the disciples] keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”  (Luke 19:40 NIV)

If we fail to worship God, if we fail to praise Him for all his glory, goodness, and honor, the rest of His creation will do it for us.  Because creation screams His name.  It was so apparent during the days we spent in Ithaca that my God loves me. That He has great things in store for me and that if I just stop trying to do things my own way, He’s going to write me a much better story.  And it will be bigger and better than my small mind can even dream of.

I’m taking comfort that He promises in Matthew to take care of me.  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  (Matt. 6:26 NIV)

I know this season of unhappiness and discontent is just that, a season.  And while I dream of things I never thought possible, I see doors being opened and needs being met in ways I don’t even understand.  But I know my God is good and there is joy in my heart.

You can’t come back from such a perfect place as Ithaca, New York, see all the things I saw, and not be moved.

Try it, I dare you.