Disney Week: Day 1-A Slow Start

Just One More Thing...
I want to begin this post by once again explaining why I'm writing about "Disney Week" and how I'm going to try an make it relevant to my life today. When I write about our trip to Disney I'm sure it's going to seem like I'm making a big deal out of nothing. Like I'm making a big life experience out of a simple vacation. Well it was a big deal for me. Not only was it was a fulfillment of the dream to go to Disney World but it was part of an even bigger dream. That bigger dream was marrying Paula and the four of us (Paula, Michael, James, and me) becoming a family. A trip to "Disney" was a key element in that transformation.

Also the trip took place about 2 months before I decided to start going to the church where I am now a deacon. Following God really wasn't even a part of my life at the time of our vacation. So when I add a spiritual meaning to the accounts of our trip, please realize that there was nothing spiritual about the trip itself. I see the spiritual application to my experiences because of the change of heart and perspective that God has given me over the last 5 years. I see everything in my life through the lens of how I can better serve God and follow Jesus Christ. Now let's get back to "Disney Week"

FIRST THE FLASHBACK:
The first day of our Disney World Vacation in 2004 we got up at 5:30 in the morning. We stopped at the Waffle House in town for breakfast and arrived at the Nashville airport in plenty of time to catch our flight to Orlando.

Once we were at our Disney World Resort our experience got off to a slow start. Our travel agent had not made our reservations correctly. Instead of our a pair of connecting rooms in the same building next to each other we were booked into different in two separate buildings. In addition, once we got to our rooms Paula realized that she had not packed the power cord to the medical equipment she uses at night. Also while playing a football video game in the resort arcade I lost my wedding ring. It wasn't a great way to start off our "dream vacation."

However, the room situation was taken care of to our satisfaction, I found my ring, and we had the part Paula needed delivered to us a couple of days later. After eating dinner at our resorts featured restaurant we put our bad beginning behind us and spent the rest of the evening at Downtown Disney. We had a good time at DisneyQuest and did some shopping and lots of looking around.

James insisted on ending the day with a swim in the resort pool. About 1AM I went to bed happy and thrilled that, even though it started out on the wrong foot, I was going to wake up the next day for my first full day at Walt Disney World.

When I look back on it now...
As I mentioned I had spent the better part of 2 years planning out the details of our Disney World trip. When we left our home I had a pocket full of lined index cards with 7 days worth of agendas and plans intended to get the maximum out of the time we were there.

The 3 things that happened when we got there. The room reservation problem, the lost wedding ring incident, and not having something that greatly helpe Paula's ability to rest at night, were problems that weren't or couldn't possibly have been anticipated. Nevertheless the stress that they caused didn't keep us, as a family, from taking hold of the fact that we had the opportunity and the goal to enjoy our vacation. We went to Downtown Disney and had a great time on our first night because that was our goal.

As a Christian I must realize that not everything I try to do for God or every effort I make to grow spiritually is going to go smoothly. Things happen. Some of them are in my control and some are not. But God is completely soverign and everything is within His control. The key is to make certain I'm doing my best to follow God's will for my life. If problems occur I must deal with them, set them aside or grow from them, while continuing to follow God's leading. Hebrews 12:1 says:.. let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. That essentially means that I need to keep our eyes on the real purpose of my life as one of God's elect.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Phillipians 3:14 "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." That calling is a call to repentance, obedience, good works and holiness. As a true believer I must continually recognize the sins in my life and turn away from them, obey God's commands, put my faith in to action through my behavior and press on to be a servant, like Jesus Christ. I should strive to live my life according to God's word in order to someday stand before him and receive the prize of everlasting life. That's my goal.