On Tuesday of last week, Micah, our oldest son and I sat at TGI Friday’s for dinner. He and his team had just lost their final game of the AAU season at the National tournament in Orlando. He was pretty bummed. Trisha and Elijah were 1,100 miles away in Michigan at church camp. It was a camp that Micah had been to each year for the past 5 years.

In the middle of our conversation, Micah said, “Dad, I really wish I could be at camp tomorrow for my birthday. It would be so awesome to see my friends.” In that moment, all I could think of were the times I’ve said “No.”

• No, we can’t afford it
• No, we don’t have time
• No, we can’t make it
• No, I’m too busy
• No, not right now
• No, that won’t work with our schedule
• No, you’re not old enough
• No, I’m too tired

If I’m honest, I say, “No” a lot more than I say, “Yes” these days.

I said, “How bad do you wish that?” He said, “What do you mean?” I said, “If we got up at 2:00 AM, with everything packed in the car, we could drive straight through and get there for the worship service that starts at 7:00 PM.” He said, “You would do that?” I said, “It’s your birthday.” So we went back to the hotel, packed up the car and went to bed about 10:00 PM. I texted Trisha and told here were were getting up at 5:00 AM to head back to Nashville. (I know I write about sharing truth, but it’s okay to fib a little for surprises ).

We got up at 2:00, were on the road by 2:30 and our 1,121 mile road trip began. About 10 hours into the trip, Micah said to me, “This might be the craziest thing we have ever done.” I said, “We will be talking about this for the next 10 years. This is the most epic road trip ever!” About 2 hours later, the air conditioning in my car quit.

Just stopped working.

At rush hour.

In Cincinnati.

It was hot. It was miserable. We were so tired and so far into it at this point, there was no point in complaining.

We arrived at camp just as the first song of the worship set was ending. We went into the bathroom, changed our nasty, sweaty clothes and went into the auditorium for the remainder of the set. As Trisha walked off the stage, she made eye contact with Micah. She began to cry and he reached out his arms to hug her. It was an awesome surprise.

How many epic moments have I missed because of “NO”? How many times could I have made memories, but I stayed on the couch or behind the computer or at an “important” meeting? Why do I not say “Yes” more often?

It was a long drive. It was 19 hours in the car. But, it was 19 hours with my son. It was 19 hours that I will never get back, but will always have the memory of the most epic road trip, ever!

Maybe there are some memories in your life this week that are just waiting for you to say, “YES”.