Room 318 Drury Inn, Indianapolis

The unexpected hits – unanticipated blessings – just kept on coming a few days ago. The Bible has a verse that I love: “…having nothing, and yet possessing everything (2 Corinthians 6:10).” On a Thursday night at an 8 pm dinner with a JPM Board member I had nothing scheduled for the Sunday just three days away and then the Tupelo blessing happened (as outlined in the previous blog). Sunday night following the wonderful services I was relaxing in the hotel and preparing to fly home Monday. My sister-in-law, Julie Durham, called saying that she had access to two tickets to the National Collegiate Football Championship Game in Indianapolis the next night. I didn’t make too much of it. I thought the ticket price would be prohibitive not to mention the last minute flight cost. 

Two phone calls later sparked possibility. My son asked me if I was interested in going since I am a huge Bama fan and we had lived in three Georgia cities. I told him that the prospect was untenable. The other call was from my great friend Lee McBride on his way to the game. He is a Bama fan like me, but one on steroids. He is an encyclopedia of knowledge about the program and the only person I personally know that has met Nick Saban and sat behind his desk (he did that in 2021). “How far are ya’ll going to try to get tonight, Lee?” “Nashville.” When he said, “Nashville”, the wheels began to turn.

I knew I would have to leave the terminal upon my connection in Nashville the next day (an odd travel anomaly I also previously referenced in last week’s blog). “Lee, would you be willing to pick me up in Nashville?” “Absolutely.” Next call was to Joseph and then to Julie. The tickets were still available. Joseph was willing to drive from Charlotte to Indianapolis. He bought my ticket which was pretty awesome. 

The game itself didn’t go Alabama’s way but the entire experience did go my way. What an incredible experience and memory shared with my son. I got “stuck” in the Georgia season ticket holder section. Witnessing the pure joy on the faces of the Georgia fans after forty years of National Championship drought was a beautiful illustration of the JOY I preached about just the day before in Tupelo, MS. 

On the way home we stopped and played a couple of holes on famous disc golf courses and ate in a quaint downtown Cincinnati restaurant with Joseph’s college buddy. I have so much necessary travel that “unnecessary” travel I avoid at all cost. A road trip with my oldest son, Joseph Phillips, put into focus that my definition of “necessary” needs to change. What a wonderful and necessary excursion. This experience was something that I did not have on my radar on Sunday night, and yet an experience that I did possess in that cosmic mystery called the Kingdom. I am glad and grateful for it.