Travel Alarms

            Several years ago, a good friend was going through a nasty divorce. She was depressed and angry. My marriage stunk and then my husband left me. I was depressed and angry. We would get together and talk about our current obsession, Celtic Thunder (and Irish man-band, don’t judge!) and dream of taking a trip to Ireland.

            Ireland seems like a magic place. All the men are handsome, and when they talk, they sound like they sing everything they say. It’s always green, the people are kind and they like potatoes. What could be better?

            I was in the Eddie Bauer Outlet one day when I came upon a cute little travel tool. It had a flashlight, an emergency strobe light, and a travel clock with alarm. You would twist the top and it would show the time of the city you chose. I bought two, set the city for Dublin, and gave one to my friend. It was a symbol of hope. Someday, life would be better, and we would go to Ireland. We would use our travel clocks!

            Somehow, the alarm on mine got set for 10:00. I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off! Eventually it got annoying so I stuck it in a cupboard under a pile of towels. This morning as I stood in my bathroom putting on my makeup, that alarm went off. Apparently its been going off every day for the past three or four years. Immediately a flood of emotions hit me between my half-mascaraed eyes. Longing for a place I’d never seen. Sadness for a friend who has since moved far away. Hope that things would someday be better. Humor, laughing at an alarm that has been set for a time that means nothing, and isn’t needed.

            And yet it was needed. I’m at a bit of a low place right now. I needed to be reminded of my friend, who loves me. I needed to be reminded of that hope that things will someday be better. I needed to be reminded of a Friend who loves me, and of that place far away that I view with longing.

           

            “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and I therefore I have hope: because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”

Lamentations 3:19-23

In the midst of the stuff of life, we have hope. God has not forgotten us. He are not consumed.

            We all need travel alarms, those little insignificant items that remind us of God’s faithfulness, of his love for us, and of the beautiful place that awaits us. I have a longing for a place I have never seen, but is my home.

           

            “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” Philippians 3:20-21

            My travel alarm is now sitting out on my kitchen windowsill, reminding me of the good that God intends for me. What reminds you of the goodness of God? What brings your flagging spirit hope? Hold on to those things. Put them where you can see them. Practice smiling at them, and be grateful that God is present.