The Pastor’s Piece – Pastor Kevin Cernek, FCFI Chaplain

FCFI
July 26, 2026

“On the road again”

Last week was a travel week.

It started when one of our former students met a young lady while attending Moody Bible Institute. They fell in love and eventually asked me to officiate their wedding in Washington State, just outside Seattle. I began looking at airline reservations and considering our options. It’s about 2,000 miles away and would take roughly 30 hours to drive.

When my wife and I fly, our first choice is usually Allegiant Air out of Rockford, Illinois. It’s convenient and economical. However, their destinations are somewhat limited. There was no direct flight to Seattle, and using Allegiant would have required an overnight stay somewhere along the way.

During my search, I discovered that American Airlines offered a trip originating in Rockford, connecting through O’Hare, and then flying nonstop to Seattle. We could make the trip in about eight hours. I booked it without realizing that the first leg wasn’t on an airplane at all – it was by bus. That really didn’t matter to us.

I knew there had been bus service from Rockford to O’Hare for years, but this was different. The bus was actually part of the airline ticket. We checked in at the airport, went through TSA security, proceeded to the gate, walked down the jetway, and instead of boarding an airplane, we climbed onto a bus parked on the tarmac.

The bus exited Rockford Airport through a secured gate and headed for Chicago. At O’Hare we entered through another heavily secured gate surrounded by razor wire and security personnel. After being cleared, the gate opened, and suddenly we were driving around inside one of the busiest airports in the world alongside jetliners taxiing to their gates. We were dropped off at our terminal, walked directly to our connecting flight, boarded the plane, and 5½ hours later landed in Seattle.

We built an extra day into the trip for sightseeing. Rather than staying downtown, we stayed in a smaller town outside the city. I’ve driven in a lot of major cities across America, and in my opinion Seattle has more traffic than any of them. It seemed to be bumper-to-bumper all the time, whether we were on a six-lane freeway downtown or a winding two-lane mountain road. The traffic moved fast, but it never seemed to let up. I only got honked at once in three days, which I consider a successful day. People need to calm down.

Instead of spending our extra day visiting tourist attractions, we rented a Jeep and headed for the mountains. That wasn’t difficult because mountains are everywhere out there.

Partway up one mountain we left the pavement and turned onto a gravel road leading to an off-road trail system. We purchased an $11.50 day permit online and started exploring. There were separate trails for motorcycles, ATVs, stock four-wheel-drive vehicles like ours, and heavily modified off-road rigs with lifted suspensions and oversized tires. There was no way our rental Jeep could have made it over some of the four-foot boulders on the advanced trails. Every group had its own place to ride, and everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time. There was a lot of smiling and waving taking place at 5,000 feet above sea level – probably more than we would have seen in downtown Seattle.

We shifted the Jeep into four-wheel drive and slowly worked our way toward the summit. The trail switch-backed up the mountainside with drop-offs thousands of feet below us. Those cliffs terrified my wife, but as long as we stayed on the trail and kept our heads, we were perfectly safe. Besides, if we happened to leave the trail, a tree would stop us before too long. 🙄

The country out there is absolutely beautiful. Pine trees soar 200 feet into the sky. Everything is green. The roads wind through forests with breathtaking views around every corner. It rained every day we were there, but the sun always seemed to break through later.

The wedding day itself couldn’t have been more beautiful. The temperature was 75 degrees, the sun was shining, and a gentle breeze rustled through the trees.

That evening we boarded the red-eye flight home. As we prepared for takeoff, the pilot came over the intercom and said, “It’s a beautiful night to fly across the country.” As we climbed into the night sky, I found myself picturing our country stretched out below us, with millions of people in the states we would soon pass over. I couldn’t help but thank God for the incredible blessing it is to live in this country. Indeed, it was a beautiful night to fly.

As I thought about our drive up that mountain, it reminded me that life is very much the same way. The danger wasn’t the mountain. The danger wasn’t even the steep drop-offs. The danger would have come if we had decided to leave the trail. As long as we stayed where the trail was designed to take us, we reached the top safely.

God has also given us a path to follow. His Word marks the trail, and His Spirit directs our steps. The world offers plenty of shortcuts and side trails that promise excitement but often lead to trouble. The safest place for a Christian isn’t always the easiest road or the most popular one. It’s simply the one the Lord has marked out for us.

Psalm 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” When we stay on His path, we discover that the journey is every bit as rewarding as the destination.

(Kevin Cernek is Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin.)