souldare

Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
    don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
    he’s the one who will keep you on track.
Don’t assume that you know it all. (Proverbs 3:5-7a The Message)

Every ADVENTure has more twists and turns that you could ever imagine.

After a morning respite from our routine, Les tuned into the NOAA weather station to check for the conditions of Mobile Bay, which we needed to cross on Sunday to get to our next destination.

The monotone voice of the weather reporter droned on about tides, temperatures and the wave conditions. He would emphasize the word “chop” when describing the waves. Because of the winds and the width of the bay, we could expect moderate CHOP.

We puttered out of the Dog River marina into the main channel of the bay to see how this moderate CHOP influenced our travels for the day. It was a little rough, but we decided we could weather the sway of the waves and push through at a slow speed. We had experience with these conditions, so we weren’t too concerned. I sat on my “perch” to watch the waves as we crested them and then “slid” down them on the boat.

At one point we had to turn in a direction that the waves  were coming at the side of the boat. Not particularly a fun way to travel, but it’s the direction we needed to go. In the best scenario, I can sit and rock with the waves, but after awhile I do get a bit queasy, so I climbed off my perch and went to lie down on our bed in the hull of the boat. I napped and made it through the roughest part of the day. Les wrangled the waves valiantly, and we were both relieved to make it into the Intercoastal Waterway.

It was a long day (40 miles across a moderate chop bay, which took almost four hours). Les surprised me by saying we would stay at another marina that evening rather than anchoring out. This was a relief, because after a day on the “rough” water, it was nice to be able to get you feet on solid ground.

This marina was part of a complex in Gulf Shores called The Wharf. We docked, took the dog for her pit stop, put her back on the boat, and went to a nice seafood dinner at the Compleat Angler. The Wharf is like an oasis with shops, an outdoor ice rink, a ferris wheel , movie theatre and restaurants. We took a walk along the boulevard looking at the shop windows and then called it a day.

On Monday morning, our next leg of the journey was a short 20 mile side trip to visit with some veteran boaters in Pensacola, Florida that we met through the C-dory boat forum online. We were looking forward to hearing all about their boating adventures.

In the meantime, I was thinking about Mary again, which led me to wonder about Joseph, so I took a side trip over to Matthew’s narrative to get his perspective on this wonderful news that Mary was treasuring in her heart and sharing with Elizabeth.

For today, I invite you to read  a portion of Matthew’s account and then tomorrow, I will share some thoughts about Joseph and introduce you to our hosts that we met on Monday.

The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.

While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. (Matthew 1:18-20a The Message)

What is your tendency: to try to figure a way out or to trust?