Whenever you set out on a big road trip do you take care to plan the clothing, activities, daily driving time, etc or do you get into the car set a course and just start driving until you get too tired or you get to your destination? As a lover of travel, I’ve tried both ways. Can I share with you what I have learned? First both types of travel work as long as you follow a few guidelines. Top on the guideline list is having a plan. Whether super loose or every minute accounted for a plan is crucial to a good trip.

Recently we visited the Tetons with a very loose plan-to hike and to camp. We didn’t have the days fully planned out or the trails mapped. I actually did that in the car as my husband drove but I had a general idea of what we wanted to do. I wanted a wildflower hike and my son wanted a long hike. Both hikes were fulfilled and all who came along for the ride became fitter, sorer and saw some of the most amazing vistas that this nation has to offer. Summer in the Tetons is breathtakingly gorgeous!

This loose planning worked for us because we had an idea with willing participants who wanted to see beauty and/or prove to themselves that they could do hard things (two steep hikes). Planning is what helps us to set a proper course and a proper course is exactly what is needed to fulfill the missions we’ve been given in this life.

Fear has a tendency to pop up a lot these days. Fear of people not following what our elected officials dictate is a moral imperative, fear of things never being the same again, fear of neighbors or strangers, fear of the unknown. And so many comply to feel safe. They comply their freedoms away or they do nothing. They wait. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

What can we do instead? What if we started with treating people as children of a divine God? What if we reached out with our words and pens with kindness and strength? What if we collaborated instead of getting angry out of fear?

Why would anyone ever want an emotion that can literally stop your progress and control you? That’s what fear does. Instead, what if we lifted with hope and goodwill? There have been many times in my own life when I have felt overwhelmed with what was going on in the world and I have found myself on my knees crying out to my God, begging for deliverance from the angst I felt. In those moments do you know what my heart has been filled with? Peace and a calm resolve to move forward with hope. Many of times it is as though angels stand with me to strengthen me. Can we not strengthen one another and lift each other?

Is that not what Joan of Arc did as she walked among the French as they fought for their country? She lifted with her words and her actions. It is written that she held her enemy as he died. She loved all mankind and yet she knew that she still had a work to do and that was to fight for freedom and so she did. We too can hold a love for mankind while unitedly standing for freedom. We were founded on freedom. Many lives were shed for this freedom and I imagine that just like me, you don’t want us to lose that freedom through fear and manipulation. Thus, while we stand, while we act, let us remember to treat each other as children of a heavenly God who are trying. And let us act.