No shortcuts

 For these past 10 days, Joanne and I have had the amazing opportunity for some time away from the city that we love.  We have been, literally, on the road through 6 states.  It's been a circular journey for visiting family and good friends while combined with sharing what is going on with our community, life and work in South Lake Union.  For a good section of the road part, sometimes more than I care to remember,  our drive followed the path of the infamous Donner Party.  I don't know if you've ever travelled this stretch of our country, through Utah, Nevada and into California, but there is a great deal of nothing... And a great deal of nothing can lend itself to a great deal of thinking and wondering.  I found myself wondering thoughts like "why?" And "what were they thinking?".  This path across the country can be challenging enough in a vehicle.  The only thing giving relief at times is the ability to legally drive 80 across the vast nothingness.  During a decent stretch of this, and wanting to give my wife the joy of speed in a fabulous car, I was able to dedicate more time than usual to consider these questions, along with the constant question of "how?"...as in "how in the world did they get themselves into their infamous predicament?" Along with what, if anything can one still learn from their tragedy?
Due to the marvels of modern phone technology, as well as the ever reliable google and Wikipedia, I took a refresher course on the drive.  I thought it a useful investment of time, seeing as we would be making a stop at the memorial to their demise.  Being in a journey of sorts ourselves, along the trail of church planting, I have been wrestling with what I might be able to learn from this.  After all, many who have journeyed before us, in the endeavor we now find ourselves in, have failed to complete the journey.  I want to learn from others successes as well as their failures.  I do not demand the right to make my own mistakes.  So here, for what they are worth, are some things that I've gleaned from their American tragedy which might benefit our journey.
1.  Make sure that you are following the right guide ... Many will try to influence the direction, but the path is already there, follow the one who knows more than the ones who claim to know.
2.  Be sure of your companions for the journey ...you will be relying on them through some of the most perilous times you will ever face.   The hardest journeys take a hard toll on everyone, and everyone needs to be of one accord and heading in the same direction.
3.  Be willing to wait.  Sometimes the wisest and bravest move that can be made is simply to  wait...insisting on "forging ahead" can lead to tragedy.  
4.  Money is nice, but it won't save you.  It was reported that one of the families left Illinois with $10,000 sewn into a mattress.  It couldnt push them over that pass.  It didn't save them on the Titanic, it didn't here, and it won't along the hard roads of planting a church.  I've been in ministry long enough to know that it won't overcome lack of leadership, wisdom and harmony.
5.  History will not remember the result of the journey over the tragedy along the way.  The end of the story is that "some" of them made it...only about half really.  Some of them made it, but at what
cost?  I am not naive enough that i dont understand that not everyone who begins this journey will be there in the end...whatever that looks like.  But I'm committed, more than ever to these things that I've seen on the road before me.  In the end, my dream is that people, somewhere down the road of time, will
remember this journey, not for what was lost, but for what was gained.