It was our last evening in Louisville, Kentucky. My brother, sister-in-law, and I had a great weekend there. Jerry and I spent the entire day at the NSRA (National Street Rod Association) National Show in Louisville, an annual event. Jerry loves old cars and we had a great time checking out the more than 11,000 vehicles on display there. Lori joined us for the afternoon. Now, after a long hot day of walking and car gazing, we were tired and hungry for our last meal together in Louisville.
After a brief discussion, we decided that we were all hungry for sushi. It sounded good after some of the heavier fare we had eaten previously in Louisville. I know sushi isn’t something naturally associated with Louisville, but with the national craze for sushi continuing to grow, we were fairly certain we could find some in town. After a cool down at the hotel, we started exploring possible sushi restaurants. Lori looked in some local magazines and area guides. Jerry went down and checked with the person at the front desk for recommendations. I looked online for some possibilities.
When Jerry got back, the guy at the front desk gave us three places six to eight blocks down from the hotel, two of which matched up with places Lori and I had found. We decided to check those places out and proceeded to walk through downtown Louisville in search for sushi. The first place turned out to be very formal and we were dressed in shorts, so we went to the second place on the list of recommendations given to us by the front desk manager. We went in and were seated. As we looked at the menu, we did not find any sushi. We asked and found out that they did not even serve sushi, so we excused ourselves and headed to the third place on our list. As we walked there, I checked again on my Droid and found another place near the third recommendation. This gave us two possibilities within walking distance. As we came upon the place I found on the internet, we found that it was closed. It only operated Monday through Friday. Undeterred, we walked on down the block to find the third recommendation from the front desk to also be closed. It also was a Monday through Friday joint. We were 0-4 and wondering whether it was worth the trouble to find sushi in this “ghost” town. We also were bemoaning the great advice offered by the hotel front desk manager.
As we walked back to the hotel, now hot from our 15-20 blocks of exploration in search of sushi, we debated whether it was worth the trouble to find someplace where we could drive for sushi. A hot dog was beginning to sound good to me and the Louisville Bats ballpark had good dogs, as Jerry and I had discovered the night before. We came to the consensus that we still wanted sushi. In other words, Lori told us we were going to find sushi if it killed us.
We got back in the car and headed toward Bardstown Road where we had eaten the first night in Louisville and where we had seen several sushi places. As we drove, we found at least three places on the internet where we could get sushi in that area. When we got to the first, we found that it was closed for a private party…0-5. We went on down to the next place after fighting a bad intersection to get out of the last dead end and found that the other place was also closed…0-6. Even the most tenacious person would have given up and decided that this was a failed mission and that it was time to go to Plan B…anyone for a dog at the ballpark!
We decided to try this last place on up the road. It had good reviews and was just another half-mile down the road. When we got there, to our surprise it was open! It was full, but there were seats open at the counter. Apparently, everyone in Louisville in search of sushi had found this to be the only casual place open to get sushi in Louisville. We were relieved, yet a little wary that some other form of disaster was surely ahead, given our track record up to this point.
As it turned out, we found this place to be an amazing place for sushi. The rolls were huge with some of the best sushi we had ever tasted. In fact, we had so much that we were barely able to finish it all…but we did! It turned out to be well worth the difficulty of our journey. We found that the long and frustrating path that had led us through six different disappointments had actually led us to the best possible finish with a great, satisfying culmination to our journey. It made us all realize how easily we could have missed out on this great culinary experience if we had given up along this exhaustingly frustrating trek in search of sushi.
It led me to reflect about how this relates to the much more important quest for God that so many experience. I hear about so many folks who allow one bad experience or disappointment to derail their search to know and commune with God. Whether it is the loss of a loved one, a divorce, a job loss, a serious illness, or some other major life change or struggle, people so quickly use that difficulty to disconnect them from the loving and gracious God who created us, offers to redeem us, and seeks to sustain us through the difficulty that we can experience in a broken world. It doesn’t even take a major setback or problem to bring a sudden stop to our walk with God and life in God’s will. Sometimes we allow a petty act or comment, a blow to our ego or our pride, or some other relatively minor disturbance or occurrence to end our journey to walk in harmony and synergy with God. It can even be a minor difference of opinion or a matter of style that can change the course of our quest for life in Christ, not because God has abandoned us, but because we have given up on God and given out on our journey with God.
I can’t help but mourn the number of God’s children who have missed the ultimate blessing of salvation God offers through Jesus Christ, let alone the journey in God’s will and way because they had no endurance, got bogged down in frustration, or allowed something to obstruct their recognition of God in their midst. We see it in the petty squabbles that disrupt the church and disconnect folks from our body today.
The search for God through Jesus Christ is worth the difficulty and frustration that sometimes accompanies the journey. For those who endure, the blessing of God’s gracious salvation is worth the trouble we often find along the path of life. God has prepared a wonderful and satisfying banquet, a veritable feast, for each of us. May we stay the course and experience the fullness of God’s blessing…it is worth the trouble!
