Step To the Ledge

GOOD MORNING! from an Economy Inn in Oklahoma City, OK (where it's not very windy on the plain, actually...)

I got into OKC around 10p last night. I'm just on the eastern edge of it - the first set of cheap motels I saw and I turned in. I had several to choose from, so I went with the lowest advertised price with WIFI. I love shady motels. There's really nothing more entertaining than laying in bed and wondering if you'll end up with lice or fleas or bed bugs :P

Anyway, yesterday's drive was a looong one. I headed out after stopping back at the hotel (you know my main contact that wasn't answering his phone? he finally called back! Haha!) I got out of Indiana and into Illinois before I even made my first pit stop. As I got closer to St. Louis, Missouri, I loved seeing the arch mark its entrance to the west. I got so excited to go into "The West" that I almost ran into the car in front of me. Apparently traffic was backed up like woah.

The entrance into "the West" isn't very exciting when you're sitting in bumper to bumper traffic. In case anyone's traveling into St. Louis, there's major construction - be prepared. In fact, there's major construction happening in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Oklahoma. It's a good time :P

As I headed into the Ozarks, I stopped to take a break at the World's Largest Rocking Chair. Things like that make me smile.

Oklahoma has been a series of turnpikes, which is fast travel, but you gotta pay for it. I've coughed up $4 twice now and I think I'll have to do it again. Thank goodness I remembered to get some cash out just in case :P

Today, I'm headed as far as I can - with Flagstaff, AZ as my goal.

*****

Yesterday, as I was going up and down and around in the Ozarks, there was a moment of fear that struck me. The speed limit was 60 or 65, i can't remember. Whatever it was, I was going a little bit faster than that. I went around a curve and saw that there was quite a drop off the ledge. Not a big deal, it's the Ozarks, right? Well the kicker? There was NO GUARDRAIL! One mistake could have sent me over the edge and barreling down into the unknown. The only thing keeping me on the road was my responsible driving (maybe less responsible since I remember I was speeding just a bit) and faith that I was going to stay on the road.

How many times have a walked along the ledge of life, though? I'm not talking about taking a leap of faith of the edge into the great pool of promise that God has given us. I'm talking about the times when I push the limits. Those times that I go through life speeding just because I can. Those times I think "this is more fun than playing it safe" or "most people call it stupid or irresponsible, I call it adventurous" or "this will make me happy for the moment, I'll deal with consequences later"... etc.

I like to think I have guardrails set up, but in this last year, I realized that I'm not very good at setting them up. In fact, most of the time, they're beyond the ledge, like they're floating in the air with more than enough room for me to fall off the ledge and not even feel the guardrails.

So, my thoughts as I travel through two states I've never visited before (New Mexico and Arizona) are:

What are the specific guardrails that I need to set up in my life?
What ledges are NOT okay for me to walk along and why?
Why do I KEEP walking along or falling over those lines that should be defined so clearly?