Life Is a Journey Not a Guided Tour | 2 Samuel 6:1-16, 20-23

March 3, 2019

Life Is a Journey Not a Guided Tour | 2 Samuel 6:1-16, 20-23

These last few weeks of weather up north have been amazing and crazy.

I don’t know if you heard this but a few weeks ago there were 7000 cancellations in the country and 3000 delays.

At the JFK airport in New York City, a group of travelers were being made to wait for their plane to arrive, which was late due to another flight being canceled. They had been waiting for seven hours.

The crowd was becoming irritable and impatient as  time went on and on and on. There was a long line at the ticket counter for the outbound flight.

Finally an angry passenger pushed his way to the front of the line, slammed his ticket down on the counter and said, “I must have my flight changed now and I must be in first class”.

The flight attendant, trying to be nice said, “Sir, we will get to you as soon as possible, but you must wait in line like everyone else. Now please go to the end of the line”.

He said, “Lady, I don’t think you heard what I said. I said I must have my ticket changed and I must be in first class!

The ticket agent said, “Sir, you need to go to the end of the line before I call security.

He said, “do you have any idea who I am?” (major pause) Without hesitation, she smiled, picked up her intercom microphone and said,

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a passenger here at the gate WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to gate 17.”

One of my all-time favorite t-shirts reads, “Life is a journey, not a guided tour.”  I first saw that t-shirt in Sharon, Pa at the Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant. Life is a journey not a guided tour.

Life is often full of detours, temptations, forks in the road and danger. And there is no one to tell you what is lurking behind door number one or what will happen if you choose job number 2 or college number 3.

Wouldn’t it be great if someone told us where to avoid the pitfalls and guide us in such a way so that we would never veer off course.

Wouldn’t it be great if every time we drove on the Overseas Highway there were no cars?

But life is not like that, is it? We continue our sermon series on the Life of King David, a man of Passion and Destiny.

Today we take a look at another amazing story and I want you to see why David was so close to God.

Here’s the story. David and his fellow warriors were returning home from battle. Exhausted, dirty and anxious to get home, they came upon a scene that took their breath away.

What was once their own quiet village was now in smoldering ruins; their wives and children had been kidnapped by the same enemy forces that had burned their homes to the ground.

And what was their initial reaction? Samuel tells us that they lifted their voices and they wept until they could weep no more.

Have you ever felt like that? Your cruising through life and everything is going beautifully then wham, your world comes crashing down around you.

It could be a diagnosis or a child in trouble or a spouse who has decided to leave. Whatever it is, it shakes you to your core. And you weep. David and his men wept until they could weep no more.

I don’t know about you, but I am not someone who likes to cry. My mother could cry you a river anytime, anyday, anywhere.

I have seen her weep many times. I myself have wept till I could weep no more only one time in my life.

Several years ago, I was a youth director at a Presbyterian church in Champion, Ohio when one of my teenagers in my youth group was killed in an auto accident.

Her boyfriend was driving the car when he hit a patch of ice, lost control and a semi broadsided them.

She was killed instantly. Her boyfriend was also a member of my youth group but he lived. In a period of 24 hours, I met with the family of the girl who was killed to help them deal with this tragedy.

She was their only natural child. I met with her boyfriend and I was the one to tell him the bad news. I met with all the teenagers of my youth group, 130 in all to help them deal with the loss.

I was then called to the high school to listen to other teenagers who were struggling. I was emotionally spent. The funeral came and the church was packed.

I gave one of the homilies talking about the incredible girl, her life, her smile, her love and her faith.

After I finished my homily, I sat down and I began to weep and weep and weep. I was crying so hard that my head was bobbing up and down. The Senior Pastor was sitting directly behind me.

After about five minutes of weeping, I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned around to thank the pastor for caring.

But it wasn’t the pastor, it was the girl’s father who had risen up out of his grief to comfort me in my grief.