My wife, Kelly, and I met on a backpacking trail a number of years ago.  I felt like I made quite the impression on her.  Things had gone well on that trail.  I was convinced, if I could talk her into it, that I was going to marry her. I wasn’t sure she was as committed as I was, nonetheless, she had thrown out on the trail…if you ever want to come to Durango and spend some time and hang out, it’s an open invitation.  I filed that away in the very front of my file cabinet.  We got off the trail after spending a week together and I waited all of two days to call her.  I called her house.  This is back in the day where phones were attached to the wall.  You had to call and actually talk to somebody’s parents in order to ask them out on a date!!!  Her dad answered the phone.  He was a football coach for 20 years in Durango.  He said hello.  I answered, “Hi! This is Ryan. Is Kelly there?”  I hear him yell to Kelly, “Kelly, Ryan’s on the phone.”  Kelly yells back, “Ryan who??”  Evidently I didn’t make as great an impression as I thought.  I asked, “Does the offer still stand to come down and visit you?”  She said, “Yes, absolutely.”  This is also before you could plug an address in your phone and it would tell you how to get there.  I got a map and looked up Durango to figure out how to get there.  She said, “When you get into town, it’s basically one street in town, you’re going to make a left at Mustang and then you’re going to weave up and you’ll eventually get to where I live.”  She gave me the directions.  I asked my parents if I could borrow one of the cars.  They said they were using both of the them that weekend.  So I went out and bought a car!  Got in my car and drove…..I said—-I’d seen Goodwill Hunting a few times—“I gotta go see about a girl!”  I get in my car and drive to Durango.  I drive all the way through main street and I don’t see Mustang.  That’s the street I’m looking for….Mustang.  I come back through and still don’t see it.  I do that a number of times.  Kelly was at work at this point in time and there was no way to call her at work.  I go back through again and think I didn’t just buy a car to come down to see about a girl for it to end up like this.  As I’m driving back through, I see a gas station named “The Mustang.”   I realized that although Kelly is brilliant and beautiful, she is geographically and directionally challenged!!  I realized that if I have the wrong goal, I’ll never end up in the right destination!

BREATH OF HEAVEN:Pragmatic Wind         2 Tim.

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OH HOLY NIGHT: CHAINS SHALL HE BREAK  Isaiah 61 & Luke 4:16-21

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When I was in college, I worked with an organization called Young Life.