IT WAS AFTER FIVE O’CLOCK

when I drove my rental car onto the freeway in Pasadena, California, on my way to Santa Ana. I am flying home tomorrow. I unfold my map (yes, you have to be a certain age to remember paper maps) and keep glancing at it while watching out for the traffic. LA traffic can be unmerciful at times. This is one of those times. Four hours and three stops to ask for directions later, I reach the off-ramp I’d been looking for.

As soon as I get home, I order a portable traffic navigational unit making the next city, rental car and off-ramp that much easier to locate. Year’s later, I no longer have to ‘pack and carry.’ Every telephone and car has it’s own built-in display. Today if you miss the off-ramp, maybe you shouldn’t be driving. Which leads me to the point at which I find myself.

 

THE NEED FOR OFF-RAMPS

is as true in life as on an LA freeway. Recently, I have been searching for the right ones, not looking for a place to park, just to staying in the lane God wants for me. The Holy Spirit has been my Navigator in this and I’m along for the ride.

Finding the right ‘off-ramp’ can be tricky. One the Navigator is pointing out to me is my weekly blog, Perspective. I’ve been writing this blog for several years and I’ll continue to post in it, from time to time, just not weekly. It will be nice if you choose to meet me at the corner of “Perspective” and “Life’s Third Age,” when I do show up, but I’ll understand if you don’t.

 

I WAS IN ISRAEL AND JORDAN

a few days ago. My 12th visit, spread over almost five decades. I worked with Dr. Gary and Jorie Gulbranson, pastors at Friendship Church in Palm Desert, California, and my daughter, Michele Peterson, who served as group coordinator. We were joined by more than forty others, with whom we quickly became spiritual explorers, pilgrims and friends.

Upon arriving back at Timber Ridge, where I live, the next day I joined 30-40 neighbors and family members who meet at The Fellowship on Sundays at 10 o’clock for worship and prayer and thoughts from the Bible. It’s a simple gathering. It is not a class and not a church. “It’s ‘inBetween,’ a safe place to meet with others who are growing in faith and hope in Jesus Christ. The idea is, if you’ve never been and you’re ready to try something new, come gather with good friends and your TR neighbors in thanking God for the blessings of life we all enjoy.” And Gage, the wonder dog, greets everyone at the door as they enter.

 

IT’S LIKE WHERE YOU LIVE.

There are ‘off-ramps’ one must take, and ‘on-ramps’ leading to opportunities for us to share faith and love in Jesus. There’s lots of joy and laughter here. There is loneliness and grief here, too. Opportunities for great caring, physical, emotional and spiritual. This is my neighborhood, where God lets me be like the shepherd no one called, a stranger who just moved in, a friend who can’t stop bringing together those whom Jesus loves.

And, of course, for me there is writing, too. Passion and pain. Storytelling. An art form Jesus used with such transforming strength. An art form in which I feel at one with him, like a small voice crying out in a literary wilderness. And so I write. For now a new story is complete. And another is just getting started.

 

‘OFF-RAMPS AND ‘ON-RAMPS’

and listening to the Navigator. Feeling confident about which way to go. The life-road we travel is different. We are different. But sharing what we know with those traveling with us and who hope to get where we say we are going should be what life is all about for a follower of Jesus, right?

May Jesus keep us close.