Motel 6

Snow-covered mountains in New Mexico

Motel 6, El Paso, Texas

Wow -- books on CD make time fly! I wish I'd used them on other road trips. I made it to El Paso just fine. I'll stay the night here and drive on to my brother's in Austin tomorrow, which looks like just an 8-hour drive.

Tonight I was musing about how I'd eaten too much today, sort of accidentally. Then I decided to start thinking of happier topics, like how excited I am to have all of my things packed up. It's really remarkable how in the past few months I've really let go of most of my possessions (emotionally, at least, since physically I still have several boxes!). There are some things I want to have for the sake of convenience, of course, like a good tea pot and a salad spinner. But I've really let go of most things. I'm also really beginning to enjoy this new job, in spite of this unusual phase. In fact, in the past I'd fantasized about having a year to go around the country and visit people -- and it seems I'm sort of doing that! :)

In the hotel I began listening to a great song by Chris Rice, "And Your Praise Goes On," which is a great song after a day spent watching southwestern Arizona and southern New Mexico go by:

The moon is high and the sunset fades
The lullabies have all been sung
We’re tuckin’ in another day
And stars appear now one by one
But the stillness moves and the silence yields
And not a single beat is lost
You can hear the chorus in the fields
Taking up where we left off

And Your praise goes on, rising to Your throne
Where You guard us while we dream
Past the stars they fly, Your praises fill the sky
‘Til You wake us with the dawn
And Your praise goes on

Now bring your warmth, O morning sun
Chase the stars and the moon away
And wake us with your brightest song
And add our voice to your refrain
Now rise up everything that lives!
Flap your wings and leap for joy!
Oh forest lift your arms and sway!
Clap your hands you ocean waves!

And Your praise goes on, rising to Your throne
Where You bless our toil and play
Through the clouds they rise, Your praises fill the skies
‘Til the setting of the sun
And Your praise goes on
And when my final breath You lend
I’ll thank You for the life You gave
But that won’t mean the praises end
‘Cause I won’t be silenced by the grave!

And Your praise goes on
I’ll be runnin’ to Your throne
With every nation, tribe and tongue
To Your arms I’ll fly
I’ll gaze into Your eyes
Then I’ll know as I am known
And Your praise goes on
And Your praise goes on
And Your praise goes on

Amazing. Before leaving on this trip I finished More Ready than You Realize by Brian McLaren. He mentions that the Christian subculture seems stuck in the modern era with sort of a boxed-in God. Not that God isn't logical (or, say, the inventor of logic), or a God of order (or, say, the one that ordered all things, "the planets in their courses"). But the post-modern culture sees that if God is living and active then perhaps God should also be recognized as full of amazing creativity, unsearchableness, wonder, and mystery. Not that we cannot know God's character (since it is revealed repeatedly that God is slow to anger, rich in mercy, and abounding in steadfast love), but that we are incapable of fully comprehending God right now. Hmm....