I heard my 12-year-old neighbor call something "spicy" the other day. I think it was a necklace or a pair of sunglasses. Apparently for those of us who remember when the original Star Wars movies came out, a time before cell phones, iPods, text messaging and MySpace, spicy is the new cool. Spicy is good. Keep that in mind and follow me.

I left my house one recent Friday morning to take part in a weekend men's retreat with my church. I departed at 11am attempting purposely to turn a 2 hour drive into a 5 hour drive, having taken the whole day off from work. I am a big fan of the journey. I like the destination too, but there is so much to learn along the way. I am in no hurry, especially when the journey takes me along the California coast and into the mountains.

About an hour into my drive north I got hungry, so I pulled off to get a hamburger in Ventura. There is nothing like a fast food drive-thru to destroy the spirit that builds up on a good drive. So I took my food and got back on the highway heading north, looking for the first spot I could find on the coast to pull over and eat with a nice view of the ocean. About 10 minutes and I found that spot, a little piece off Pacific Coast Highway for campers and day use. I parked and got into the bed of my truck, pulled my favorite flannel sleeping bag up to rest against, and ate my burger watching the surfers, seagulls and beach combers.

I sat, I ate, I took in this serene scene. The sun was shining down from a cloudless sky; a cool sea breeze kept away the exhaust from the nearby highway. The surfers cut through the waves with grace, a flock of pelicans swooped down and skimmed the surface of the water, riding a wave of their own above the surface of the ocean. And then out of the corner of my eye I saw something leap from the water. I focused on the spot and a second later I saw it again. A dolphin leaped out of the water, then another and another. As I watched this pod of playful dolphins catching waves along with the surfers, leaping into the air, I thought, this is about as close to God as I can get.

Watching the surfers and the dolphins enjoying this, God's creation, north of Ventura and just south of heaven, the breeze, the sun, the smells all around me, I found myself in a cathedral, the most magnificent temple that no human hands nor mind could create nor conceive. And I worshipped here in my own peaceful, silent, appreciative way.

I drove a little further on, stopped in Santa Barbara

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