Not Just Another Long Car Ride

It happened last month.  Four of us on our ministry team settled into my vehicle for a long car ride to a destination over three hours away.  And we were all surprised – and blessed – by what ended up happening.  I’m sharing it with you in the hope that you might have a comparable experience some day.

Before every ministry event we do, we on the team always “check-in” with each other.  The intention is to find out where your fellow team members are at on that particular day – emotionally, spiritually, relationally – and to find out if they have any particular thoughts about the upcoming ministry event.  Checking-in is an essential part of our ministry, and we highly recommend it.  It has helped us to get to know one another better, pray for one another, and listen to how the Holy Spirit may want to alter our plans for the event we’re about to begin.  To be quite honest, most of the time our team member check-ins are rather concise, out of necessity.  We arrive one hour before every ministry event to set up, check-in, and pray, so our time is always limited. And of course lengthy check-ins should never be a substitute for having enough team prayer time.

But last month, on that long car ride, there was no time limit for our check-ins, a factor that made them surprisingly powerful.  One of our team members suggested that we take our time – since we had plenty of it – and that we get really honest about how we are really doing.  Each one of us not only talked about WHAT we have been doing lately, but we actually delved into HOW we are doing.  We talked about how our primarily relationships with family members and friends have been, how our relationships with God has been, and what our hopes and dreams are for the future.  We even opened it up so that we could ask questions of one another - which took the personal sharing to an even greater depth.

Have you ever been in an awesome small group discussion on a retreat?  Well, multiply that by 1000 and you’ll have some idea of what our car ride was like.  We talked openly and honestly with one another for the entire three hours.  I wish you could have been there.  But you can be…

I hope you’ll be open to experiences like this in the future.  I know that we can’t have these deep conversations with everyone in our lives; nor should we.  Some people are incapable of such depth, and God isn’t necessarily calling us to be totally transparent with everyone we know.  For example, I would never pour out my heart like this to a clerk at Quik Trip.  And with our teens, our transparency needs to be somewhat guarded in order to maintain a healthy emotional distance.  But in this case, we were all adults, friends, and team members in ministry.  And we needed what we experienced to help us deepen our relationships with one another and with God.

I know that we are all busy.  I know that small talk is easier than deep personal sharing.  I know that listening to music in the car or texting people can be entertaining, helps to pass time, and can even inspire us.  But let’s not miss out on the opportunities the Lord might be giving us to really talk about our lives with one another – especially on those occasions of long car rides.