Black-topped roads that hug the countryside inspire something within me.... (Hocking Hills, Ohio 2016)
I launched Road Report in year four of a career search that I have since mothballed. A theme behind Road Report included my desire to work in my own hometown. Another was depicting life as a journey that often encountered the “back roads” more than the main ones.
Road Report at FarmingtonGlenn(.net) launched in April, 2012. Thanks to friends Todd Waller and Dan Rose for crafting the framework that made it a reality.
Road Report primarily shares how God is shaping my day-to-day experiences, reading and encounters with others. I pray these “reports” from my own “roads of life” resonate with fellow Christians to also grow in their relationship with our Lord. My highest hope is to intrigue people “on the fence” about, or even opposed to Jesus to be open to consider receiving his invitation to enter into a relationship with him.
Inspiration for "FarmingtonGlenn" within 2-blocks of our home - to work locally.
While “FarmingtonGlenn” was inspired by a similarly-named local swim club a couple blocks from our house, I didn’t limit my search just to local opportunities. Using multiple searching strategies, I pursued recommendations and sought companies and positions fitting my competencies and experiences, even if only remotely.
Many setbacks later, I work locally now but not as I envisioned. Time for me to move on, philosophically, to key on God's musings for me vs. my own. As I close the FarmingtonGlenn chapter, Road Report continues as Road Report Journal.
Thanks for following along with my FarmingtonGlenn journey. Exit here to jump over to Road Report Journal.
While my career as a operations manager/leader appears to be over, life continues and God is faithful and good. As Rick Warren wrote in the very first line of “Purpose Driven Life, ‘It’s not about you.’” That first chapter is entitled “It All Starts With God.” I’m grateful to know that.
I believe everyone discovers that truth at some point. Sadly, most people learn this too late.
My passion is to show that life starts and ends with God. My platforms are where God allows or leads me to occupy such as Road Report Journal and as I into being a husband, father, neighbor, elder and for now, serving customers in the aisles of a True Value hardware store.
Our pastor has advised that if we are disappointed with our story, stay tuned. God is the only storyteller who counts and he promises something special for me and you that continues to unfold and will not be complete until we die.
“I tell no one any story but his own,” said the lion Aslan in C.S. Lewis’ third Chronicles of Narnia book, “The Horse and His Boy.”
If you tend toward skepticism, look no further than the repentant thief crucified next to Jesus. We can only presume but don’t really know his story except for that brief exchange with Jesus in his dying moments as recorded in Luke 23. Turns out his ending was the moment that mattered most for him.
Ending with Jesus is essential but living with Jesus is best no matter how difficult the roads. For me, more roads ahead and more stories to tell.
As I close FarmingtonGlenn and transition to Road Report Journal by filing this 300th Road Report, I offer these thoughts by Dallas Willard from “Divine Conspiracy,”
“Jesus’ good news about the kingdom can be an effective guide for our lives only if we share his view of the world in which we live. To his eyes this is a God-bathed and God-permeated world. It is a world filled with a glorious reality, where every component is within the range of God’s direct knowledge and control—though he obviously permits some of it, for good reasons, to be for a while otherwise than as he wishes. It is a world that is inconceivably beautiful and good because of God and because God is always in it. It is a world in which God is continually at play and over which he constantly rejoices. Until our thoughts of God have found every visible thing and event glorious with his presence, the word of Jesus has not yet fully seized us.”
The repentant thief might argue with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s popular notion that “Life is a journey, not the destination.” In his case, the destination was what mattered most. But for those fortunate enough to receive Jesus during life, much, much more is possible for both the journey and the destination - life to the full! (See John 10:10).