Tomorrow afternoon is the departure time for the big trip to Austin. Looks like I will be driving six high school students down for the basketball game on Friday. Most of my time this week revolves around finding lodging for this adventure. Austin hotels are filled this weekend with the tournament as well as the state legislature meeting. This may be my last post for the week depending on how things play out. We will return on Friday evening should our guys fall short. Our arrival time will be Saturday night if we play in the final. At least we have places to stay while away. Our hotels are not in the city of Austin but two different towns nearby. Thank goodness for Mapquest and other online direction tools. It does make traveling easier.

Austin is one of those cities beyond my comfort zone. I can get around Houston, the DFW area and even the Panhandle fairly well. Our state capitol is one of the towns that I do not travel to very often. My first visit was over thirty years ago for Boys State. It seems that maybe there was another trip about twenty years ago for a conference. All I know is traffic is a pain there with so many people with not enough roads. Getting there is not really a problem. Maps show that you just stay on one basic road for most of the trip. Navigating the streets closer to the campus may be a bit more tricky. Packing will include several maps printed to make things easier on us. We will be safe. It is the other guy you may worry about.

Directions are important when it comes to unfamiliar places. You are usually more alert to missing road signs as you move along. Maps and other things make it easier to know where you are at any given moment. This is always the first step in knowing where you want to be. It was the great Yogi Berra who said, "If you don't know where you are going you may end up somewhere else." It does not really matter if you know whether or not you are lost. The end result is the same regardless. I can get lost yet know it right away. Some people get in that situation with no idea of what is happening. Good guidance matters in any journey.

We could write about how God guides us through life. That is a given as scripture will always point us in His direction. There is even a place here for mentioning our priorities as we experience guidance. But there is one issue that rings clear through my recent study of Isaiah. It may be possible that some believers neither seek nor especially desire guidance. How this could happen seems beyond imagination. Shouldn't one who is a follower of Jesus want to know more of the divine purpose in living? You have to admit there are far too many people who attend church even on a regular basis who appear to have no interest in what God says. I do not want our group to miss the experience of cheering their classmates during their game. My hope is they have a great time win or lose this Friday. My ultimate goal is to return them safe and sound to their homes. Ever wonder what we may miss by resisting divine direction? I do. Missing out during our journey here would truly be a tragedy. May it not happen to you.

Bro. Trey