Finding Faith on the Road: An RV Camper's Gut-Feeling

Driving east on Interstate Highway I-70, I found myself overlanding in Quinter, Kansas. Which is the halfway point between Denver, Colorado and Kansas City, Missouri. with a population of roughly 900.

I was getting ready to cook my infamous “throw everything in one pot dish” when I got boxed in with cars in front of me as well as behind me. Like spiderman, my “spidey” senses kicked in and started listening and observing to the acoustic-environment around me. I heard kids running, playing and laughing, grown adults helping one another taking dishes out of the vehicles towards the picnic tables in front of my RV. I was thinking to myself, “Shoot, I hope they don’t get mad that I’m staying here overnight, they can’t get mad, I passed a sign that said overnight camping is allowed.” It wasn’t until later they were more surprised by me for locating this place, it's about 2 miles from the freeway and no one can just find this place. Thanks iOverlander App!

I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, so I stepped out of my RV and introduced myself to a gentleman called Justin. He had that amish look and started asking who/what/where and why I was here, in a very polite-sincere way. After getting the formalities checked off, I think his main concern was protecting his family and community. It wasn’t long before we started asking each other questions like, How and when did you find god? Justin said proudly, I found god a few years back, that's when a super loud and familiar siren went off-screaming across the town. It took me back to the prayer calls I used to hear 6 times a day in Afghanistan. I said, “is there something I should know!?” He laughed and said, “yeah it goes off everyday at the same time” so I checked another box mentally in my head, I still wasn’t sure what I had gotten myself into staying in this local park.

After a while, Justin invited me to join him and his family for supper. I was a little hesitant to be honest, and gave him a shrug and told him, I was cooking food inside and was going to call it an early evening. Mindyou, I was driving for the last 4 hours in 100 degree weather, going no more than 65 mph on the highway. I was exhausted and wanted to catch up on some Zzzz.

He left, and I went inside for a quick shower while I let the ground beef marinate on the counter before throwing it on the stove. That's when I had this gut-feeling lingering over me like a dark cloud before a thunderstorm and it wouldn’t go away. For some odd reason I knew that gut-feeling wasn’t leaving. I had this conversation with myself in the shower, “this is one of the main reasons you bought this RV, to understand more about life, culture, family, and freedom.” I realized I was scared and nervous, just like the first day of middle school or high school. I had to use some Mogressive wisdom on myself to muster up courage and build my confidence. Stepping out of your comfort zone is a lot more difficult than we were told, but I made my purpose bigger than my fear and mental limitations. “When will I ever have this moment in life again?”

Out of the two weeks of traveling across 7 states, I have to say, I’m glad I joined Justin and his community for supper. We shared life stories, passions were invested in, and more importantly the value of life through the eyes of god. Up til-now I haven’t told anyone this but, I wanted a stronger relationship with my faith and that gut feeling I was having in the shower was a message - let me explain.

It wasn’t until I started reflecting 2 days later on this experience that god or a higher power was trying to tell me something while I was in the shower. For some reason, I couldn't let this gut feeling go. Then boom, I figured it out…

Those gut-feelings we get every now and again are the closest we can get to communicating with god or a higher power - it doesn’t matter what religious background you hale from, it's still a message knocking on your door or stomach so to speak. When I explained this to myself I was like, “Ok Morfett I see you! Maybe you are a little smart after all lol” We can talk to god or a higher power whenever we want, but how rare is it when he’s trying to talk to you, first? Those were my thoughts.

I asked myself one simple question, when do I get these gut-feelings? I started reflecting back throughout my life experience and the moments I trusted my gut-feeling versus not trusting it.

Double guessing yourself, or not listening to your conscience are quick examples of those gut-feelings I'm talking about. I came to the conclusion that whenever I did trust my gut-feelings and followed through with them, life worked out better than I could have imagined. Just like this experience I had in Quinter, Kansas. Sometimes our environments surrounding us distract us from trusting those gut-feeling and to follow through with them.

God or a higher power was trying to guide you, relay a message to you like morse-code. Tapping on your mind to trust the process. Life is like a dance and each of us has a different rhythm in which we live by.

Through spending time with Justin and his family, I realized that I'm the bridge, if you’re reading this or listening to this, you're the bridge, the gatekeeper in your own lives between your spiritual faith and this physical-reality we live in.

Life can get stressful and scary at times, forcing us to react to whatever life throws at us. So the next time you get this “gut-feeling” , take a second, and smile, god is talking to you, trying to guide you. But without you-the bridge, or your self-awareness, those messages get lost in translation. It's up to you whether you want to open the bottle and read the message.

Your mind is more powerful than you could ever imagine, but experiencing moments like these and allowing your mind to trust the process opens up a new dimensional reality where you can begin to live to your fullest potential. If you ever feel discouraged to make permanent changes in your lives, just remember, you're going to get these gut feelings in which they will provide you with two options…trust in yourself-the bridge or trust those repeating negative thoughts that it could never work out how you imagined it.

Either way you're right.