It was decided. Anna, Jen, and I would go to Nashville right after Friday morning exams. Oh and the most exciting part, Amanda, would drive down and meet us for the weekend. Yes, please. Jen would have her interview Saturday morning, but the rest of the time we could explore and enjoy the music city.
Planning the actually logistics of a weekend trip to Nashville all happened a week before we left. I remembered my last traveling adventure over Fall Break and decided that a "plan" would be a good thing.
On that adventure Sarah, Anna, and I had no plans other than a plane ticket to Denver, CO and a house to stay in the first night.... the rest was figured out in the airport and on a minute to minute basis. There was a brief two hours when we considered staying in a stranger's mountain house in Breckenridge... It was free, in Breckenridge, and he seemed really nice... Lucky for us, reality set in and we realized maybe not the best decision. But we ended up booking some random hotels all over the state and our spontaneous Colorado trip was beautiful and wonderful and just what I needed at the time.
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| And the only thing planned was the flight we were about to get on and our first night's stay... |
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| But it ended up all being perfect... exploring Denver, hiking, four-wheeling, seeing snow, visiting Crooked Creek... all perfect and all a truly beautiful gift from God. |
So in comparison to Colorado, I thought we had it all figured out... We had booked a hotel, bought tickets for the Dave Barnes and Friends Christmas show, got restaurant recommendations from Macon (a Nashville native), and we even had directions to where we were staying. And when our parents asked about the plans, we said we had it all figured out and to not worry. Surely we had it all together... or so we thought.
So this past weekend Anna, Jen, and I hopped in the car right after mine and Jen's Friday morning exams and were Nashville bound.
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| I love maps and love seeing where the road tripping is leading. |
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| Making it to Tennessee was perfect and an absolutely beautiful drive through the Appalachian mountains... I LOVE MOUNTAINS. |
After a good eight hour drive we made it to Nashville and were hotel bound. We wanted to check into our hotel before going to get dinner and before starting the evening. We were all really tired... I had maybe slept four hours the night before and had just come off a long week of exams, but we wanted to enjoy Nashville for all that it was.
Now all that we knew about the hotel was that it was cheap because it fit into our college budget and that it was in the "Downtown/Opryland" area. We had booked the hotel off of Expedia and it seemed like a really great deal. The downtown area was just where we wanted to be and it was close to Jen's interview on Saturday morning. And it was the perfect price for us college students... As college students loving adventure we knew that we couldn't stay in a super nice place so we were fine with bumming it and Jen brought her sleep sack just to avoid the sheets of the hotel bed.
As we were getting closer and closer to the hotel we started getting further and further from the seemingly safe parts of Nashville. We were entering into the much more run down and sketchy side of the city. I could hear Anna squirming more and more in the back seat and I was just laughing because that's all that I know to do in unfortunate situations.
After passing some old abandoned buildings, some stray dogs wandering around, and some large crowds of people we arrived at our hotel... our hotel that was really a motel because there was outdoor access to all of the rooms. And upon pulling into the parking lot of the hotel, we were starred down by a large group of guys just chilling in the parking lot. We were not comfortable... as twenty-one year old girls who do not know the area, this was not where we wanted to be and was surely not where we wanted to be staying.
But we thought we had it all figured out... We thought our plan was flawless... And I surely was not ready to accept defeat in this plan.
We stayed in the car for fifteen minutes, stomachs growling, contemplating what to do. We could just get over our fears and just stay at the hotel and "hope for the best." We could stay there one night since we were already there and figure out something else for the second night. We could just find a new hotel all-together, which would involve spending more money. Or we could sleep in the car since that would be free (this was never a real consideration though).
In this time of contemplation, tears started coming down my face. They were tears of frustration and of exhaustion. I just wanted this trip to be fun and cheap... not really sketchy. I can say now, crying was definitely not the solution to the problem, but it was the only thing that seemed adequate at the moment.
After talking all together, Anna, Jen, and I decided that we would go drive around downtown (the area we thought we would be staying in) and just see the prices of other hotels and see the availability there. We were driving up and down Broadway (where all the honky tonk bars are) calling hotels and seeing what it would cost to just stay there one night. We figured by the second night we could come up with a different plan.
All of the hotels in the area would be over $200 a night and would not include free parking. It was not an appealing price at all, especially coming off the cheap, sketchy hotel... and it was definitely not in the price range of the cheap college student adventure to Nashville.
We kept driving in circles contemplating what to do... just stay in the sketchy hotel where we would probably be fine, but where we would hardly sleep because we were nervous... OR just accept defeat in the original plan and pay a lot more money for the really nice hotel in the really nice location.
Eventually we decided... we would just splurge and book one night in the Hampton Inn downtown and then figure out another plan for the next night. I wasn't overly thrilled about the price, but it was getting late, and I was hungry and really exhausted and just wanted out of the car.
Jen called her mom to make sure that it would be okay to just put the hotel on their credit card for the night and we would just pay them back once we got home and get it all sorted out. Her mom so graciously agreed. We had to admit a little defeat to our parents though, which is never ever fun.
After booking the hotel and checking in, we were finally parking in the parking garage when Jen received a text message from her dad. It was simple: "The hotel is on me for both nights. You girls enjoy and have fun in Nashville."
Say what?! No more sketchy hotel, no more splurging on our parts, no more driving around aimlessly... instead we were getting a really nice hotel with fluffy white sheets, in a really great location, for two nights... all FREE to us.
It was perfect.
Except it was a little hard to except. I felt stupid that our plan had failed. I felt indebted to Jen's dad. I felt guilty that we had to ask for help.
But slowly those feelings slipped away and we got settled into our lovely hotel room. It had fluffy white pillows on the best mattresses. We were greeted by lemonade in the lobby. And we were a two minute walk to everything we wanted to do in Nashville. This hotel was way better than any place we had ever imagined staying in.
The trip ended up being quite delightful. Amanda came down Saturday morning and spent the day and night with us. We explored downtown, visited the Vanderbilt area, did some shopping, saw Dave Barnes and Friends Christmas concert, went to Midtown church, and ate at lots of fun places. It was a wonderful way to begin this Christmas break and it was with some of my very best friends.
And I learned a lot about God... and the plan He has for us.
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| We ate at The Old Spaghetti Factory and got to play in this really fun Christmas train. |
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| There is nothing like a huge Christmas tree and best friends to put you in the Christmas spirit. Thank you, Anna and Jen, for being the best friends to road trip with and for your traveling spirits as well. |
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| So incredibly thankful that Amanda could drive down to Nashville to meet us and spend some time with us. I am so blessed to have a best friend that lives twelve hours away, but that I still get to see and adventure around with. |
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| The Dave Barnes and Friends Christmas show was absolutely wonderful. Dave Barnes is absolutely hilarious and I was laughing the entire time. And his "friends" performing were some of my most absolute favorite people... they included Drew & Ellie Holcomb and Andrew Ripp. |
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| "It's a crazy town full of neon dreams. Everybody plays, everybody sings. Hollywood with a touch of twang." |
And that's how it is with God. Life with Him is way better than we can ever imagine.
So often we try and plan our own life. I know that I do this. I always come up with the plan that I think will be "best" and I do everything I can to act on that plan.
We come up with the "next semester" plan, the "next year" plan, the "five year" plan, the "ten year" plan, and then even the "life plan." Now all those plans may be full of great goals and ambitions and lots of fun adventures, but if they are not God's plans then they certainly not the BEST plans.
We all so often plan our future out without considering what our Heavenly Father has in plan for us. We often do not ask for help or guidance. We just barrel forward with what we want and hope for the best.
That is what we did with Nashville. We wanted to go, so we planned the trip. We booked a hotel without much consideration of the location and were just hoping for the best... well the best did not happen.
When we are not seeking the Lord's will in our life or when we are giving Him the cold shoulder in our plans we miss out on all that life can be... we get the sketchy hotels. We get a life that is manageable and is okay and is sometimes exciting, but it falls short of all that it can be.
We have to ask God for guidance and we have to ask God to show us His plans for us and we have to let God in.
In those moments we will find life that is truly abundant and is all that God intended for us. It is life that is full of sparkle and is beautiful and wonderful. And it is all part of a plan that we do not come up with... it is from God's plan for our life. It is a life that leads us to knowing Him more and to us bringing glory to Him.
We never imagined that we would be in as nice of a hotel that we were this weekend. But when we finally broke down and admitted that our plan was way less than ideal, and we asked Jen's parents for help we were given something way more abundant than we ever imagined. All we asked for was a credit card to temporarily book the hotel with, instead, we were given two nights at a nice hotel with great service and really nice sheets.
God wants to give us more than we can imagine, but we have to let Him into our lives and into our plans. We have to admit that our plans just are not cutting it. My plan and my way of doing things is simply not working.
But with my Heavenly Father there is life and there is beauty and there is excitement and there is someone holding me up when life does get rough. The cool thing too is that God can rescue us and He wants to. He wants to swoop in when we admit defeat.
This gift of life with God and in His plan is all free. There is nothing that I can do to earn it. It is truly by the grace of God that we can know Him and can walk with Him. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8). With that grace of God there is no room for guilt or regret, there is only freedom.
It's simple: God knows best. I do not.
And after being on this journey with God for a while now I do realize that His plan does not always lead me to four star hotels with best friends in really fun towns. I do know that it has brought me to places that are hard and where crying seems to be an everyday occurrence. It has brought me to places where my heart is broken, but the journey is always best with God. In the darkest places and in the deepest valleys, Jesus is holding my hand and is crying with me and comforting me. I know that I cannot do this "life-thing" on my own. I just simply cannot.
I am thankful for this reminder this past weekend. I am in a season where "life plan" is brought up in nearly every other conversation. And this weekend I was reminded that this "life plan" is not my own, it is the Lord's.
I am beyond thankful that it is in this plan that I will know Jesus more and that I will be in a plan that is meant to glorify Jesus more. "In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory" (Ephesians 1:11-12).
My prayer is the same as that of Paul for the Ephesians:
"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to the his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
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Side Note: I must give credit to Anna for all of the wonderful pictures that I put on this blog usually. She is the photographer of the McMansion and is a true lover of pictures... and she is really, really talented. She has her own photography blog and you should really check it out.
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