DAILY BLOG

Tonight is our last night in Charleston. Tomorrow at 6:30am, we’ll leave the hotel and head towards our home 958 miles away. However, this time, we’ll be going at 65mph, not 17-22mph. All of us are glad to be heading home, but to be perfectly honest, I am really saddened tonight. Just between you and I, I am not sure I am ready for it to end. This tour and my book (The Expeditionary Man) has been such an integral focus over my life and the life of our entire family since last fall. In fact, for much of the winter and spring, planning/coordination/logistics/training seemed like a full-time job. A great deal of the conversation and activity of our family always seemed related to some aspect of the tour since the spring. I put much of my future authoring plans on hold until after the tour so I could concentrate fully on it.

Yesterday, I simply felt relief and joy in celebrating the ending at the beach. But, as we packed up our vehicle tonight, the reality of the tour being over hit me for the first time. I had to fight back a tear or two, as I joyfully reflected on the experiences that we’ve shared together over the past month. The tour really was “perfect”—I would not change a thing. We felt God’s hand of protection and blessing upon us each step of the way. We felt the love of so many brothers and sisters in Christ as we crossed the country. We were able to encourage and challenge fathers and families, sharing the core messages of The Expeditionary Man. We experienced an adventure together as a family that will be something we’ll never ever forget—even into eternity.

Tonight on my last night in Charleston, I feel the sting of living in a fallen, sinful world. As long as we live on this earth, great experiences will always have an ending. And when that ending comes, we will always feel the bittersweet sting of the intense joy of what we experienced mixed with the grief over that experience coming to an end. We’ll always want more. We’ll always wind to rewind the clock. We’ll always want an encore. It is just such a reminder of how incredible Heaven will be—that we’ll be able to experience unforgettable adventures, yet never have to have a “last night in Charleston.”