Devotions
Road Trip - Hitting the Road (A Study on Chasing a Dream Part One)
By Rev. Jeff Dixon, Senior Equipping Minister, Covenant Community Church
Oct 13, 2003, 20:31

On the evening of May 19, 1903, in the exclusive University Club in San Francisco, a debate raged over the reliability of the new horseless carriages that had been showing up on the streets of major American cities. Horatio Nelson Jackson, a 31-year-old retired doctor from Vermont who was passing through San Francisco, accepted a wager. Under the terms of the bet, Jackson would win 50 dollars if he made it all the way to New York City, something no one else had every done before, in less than three months.

Four days later, Dr. Jackson and a 22 year-old bicycle repairman, Sewall K. Crocker, set off from San Francisco in a 1903 Winton Touring Car. Along the way they picked up a third member, a bulldog named Bud. Like Jackson, Bud wore drivers' goggles, since the vehicle lacked a windshield - or roof or sides, for that matter.

One hundred years earlier in 1803, Meriwether Lewis got his marching orders from President Thomas Jefferson to find out what the 15 million dollars he'd spent for the Louisiana Territory had bought.

Horatio and his companions, knowingly or not, seemed to be traveling in the shadow of Lewis and Clark. On July 12, for instance, after covering an astonishing 250 miles through Nebraska, they rolled into Omaha near the place where Lewis and Clark, a century earlier, had held their first meeting with a handful of American Indians.

In 1900 there were 8,000 cars in America compared to 14 million horses. Most Americans rarely traveled more than 12 miles from home. And there were only 150 miles of paved roads, most of them in large cities.

The vehicle was a cherry red, 1903 Winton tour car, already more than a month old and with over 1,000 miles on it. The Winton had a two-cylinder, 20-horsepower engine underneath the driver’s seat, with a chain drive, capable of speeds up to 30 miles per hour.

Partway through his improbable journey, he learned that his spur-of-the-moment trip had turned into something of a race. First the Packard company and then the Oldsmobile company dispatched their own autos from California in the hopes of passing him and gaining the publicity of being first across the nation. Also, as he worked his way across the country, more and more people were drawn to the vehicle. In small towns, hundreds would line up to see the horseless carriage. Even in larger cities, as word spread of this cross-country trip, thousands would line up to meet Jackson, Crocker and Bud.

I am convinced that Horatio Nelson Jackson is one of the great adventurers in our history. He set off on his journey on a dare and a dream. In many ways his adventure is our adventure. Christians today aren’t known for being dreamers, we aren’t known for having a lot of vision, and we aren’t known as risk takers that are willing to test the limits to accomplish things. I have taught for years that the call of Christ is a call to touch and change the world. In Dr. Jackson we have the journey of a dreamer. The Bible tells us about a man who because of his relationship to Christ was also a dreamer…his dream was to touch and change the world with the love of Jesus….his name is Paul. In the journey of Paul we see the journey of a dreamer and the way he traveled reminds us of how to stay on track as dreamers. Take the time to watch Road Trip and learn these lessons. You may also want to read some of the devotions that have been designed to explain this better.