If you detect a little excitement in my blog today, it is not a mistake. This time tomorrow I will be in "Beantown" (Boston, MA for those of you who don't know your city nicknames). It will be the first day of mine and Lisa's 7 day-long and long-overdue honeymoon. We decided to take a few days and cruise around New England. I'm excited for 3 reasons:

• The history of New England. I was an American History major in college and I love visiting the sites where America was shaped--battlefields, courtrooms, meeting halls and churches. Yes, churches. Despite what revisionists want to tell us, America was founded on some very sound Biblical principles as well as distinctly Godly values. Start by looking at the Mayflower Compact and read all the way through some of the letters and journals of our Founding Fathers and you have a hard time missing it. That is, unless you do what "modern" historians are doing by taking phrases and portions of history out of context to make it say what you want it to say. Kind of like church goers who pull Scripture out of context to justify their behavior and judgments. (Now I have gone to "meddlin" as my grandfather would have said).
• The beauty of New England. I'm going to see parts of the country that I have never seen. Five states in 8 days. Coastlines, mountains, small towns, fields, changing leaves...what more could you ask for. I'm one of those guys who is amazed at what God did with just a few words. I'm amazed how it all fits together and how it was given to us by God as a gift to enjoy (for the hard-lined environmentalists who have forgotten that point, re-read Genesis. I'm all for protecting the environment but it is ours to use and enjoy without apology. We simply must be good stewards of how we do that. It's called "balance" people so quit getting so whacked out about it).
• The beauty of my travel partner. Every day that passes I see a little bit more of the gift that God gave me in Lisa. Let's face it, yesterday was just 3 months of marriage and there is much that I still have to discover about my new wife. The scary part is there is still much she has to learn about me (Yikes!!). I want these next 8 days to be a time of friendship and prayer, laughter and learning, love and awakening. She and I have both been through a lot these last 3+ years. We're ready for some down time.

So, here are my promises to you who continue to read the blog (by the way, thanks to all of you new readers who have joined us. Hope it's been worth the effort to log on).

1. I will enjoy myself.
2. I will not answer my cell phone unless it is my children calling. The rest of you can leave messages and know that, unless you are bleeding, dying or offering me money, I will call you back when we get back to Tennessee.
3. I might blog...I might not. (How's that for decisiveness?)
4. I will be reading. Got several books to catch up on.
5. I will not be bothering you.
6. I will pray for you and am hoping you will do the same for us.
7. In the words of General Douglas MacArthur, "I will be back." (Some of you thought that originated with the Terminator didn't you? Just a bad copy-cat). And I will be back ready to take on what's next for me and my family and my church. This journey of life is not done until God "blows the whistle" so I'll enjoy this break and come back ready to do my part in God's plan.

What's next for you?