I am ashamed to admit how many times I get lost while driving.. and using the GPS. For some unknown reason I simply have no sense of direction. It takes about a half hour longer than the average person for me to get anywhere, regardless of the familiarity of the route I'm taking..
Last week I went to pick up my cousin at her house, and i had to pull over on my way there and plug the address into the GPS so I could follow the purple line. My cousin lives ten minutes away and I've made the trip over a hundred times. But somehow I find myself completely confused when I try to find the way by myself. In my head I see the starting point and the destination, but the path to get there is nowhere in sight... so many questions in my head with how to get from 'here' to 'there'!
There are other times I am 'completely sure' about where I'm going. I see the road and where it leads, and I am 'positive' i know exactly what I'm doing and where I need to turn. But despite my good intentions, I too often get distracted and miss an exit (and the next exit.. and the one after that.. turning around can become difficult when these things happen..), or confused by signs and lights... and still, I end up lost.
Lately God has been teaching me a lot about directions. I find myself confused and unsure about so many different parts of life right now. Sometimes I just feel completely LOST. But the thing is, just like when I drive I have a system that knows where i SHOULD be going... in life I have a God who knows my every path, and GUIDES me into all truth. My heart has been aching and desperate for a Savior, but so afraid to trust. So afraid that His ways aren't really the best for me, that He might not really be taking care of me..
It amazes me how often I FINALLY turn to my GPS, and I follow the purple line part of the way but then see where the line is going and I'll think to myself 'I know a faster way. I'm gonna deviate from these directions, because my way is better.' And then it amazes me how my way is actually NOT the better one, and the little machine had been right the whole time. But to me at that moment those directions couldn't POSSIBLY be right, I knew a MUCH better way that I had taken before.. too bad I forgot that i had gotten lost THAT time too.
I do that with the Lord as well. He has a path for me, and sometimes i can even see the path so clearly! I know right from wrong, I am capable of making good choices. But I find myself trusting in myself, and thinking my way might be better than the one God has set out for me. I find myself running. Running in the wrong direction.
But He NEVER lets go. When I go the wrong way in the car, when I get off the path the GPS has set out for me, the screen changes and says, 'RECALCULATING..' and sets a new path to get me to the same place. It might take a little longer, and it might not be the easiest way. But that's just an effect of me trying to take things in my own hands.. the path gets longer and harder. But still managable, the end is still in sight. Just not as easy to get to if I had followed the directions the right way in the first place.
And I think that's what God does with me. In His mighty works of forgiveness, when I try to go my own way, and I make mistakes, He simply tells me 'recalculating..' Well, with a lot of love and compassion, He wraps me in His arms, the only place of perfect peace, and starts my path over, giving me new directions again, and guiding me the whole way. And its continually up to me to choose to follow and trust His directions. Sometimes that feels like a lot of work to me.. choosing to do the right thing all the time. I wish God would just choose for me. But He is a perfect gentleman, and doesn't force a thing on me. He does the hard work, the placing of the path, the deciding for my life, the creating, the embracing, the encouragment along the way. So all I have to do is make a choice.. and trust that the Creator of the universe knows exactly what He is doing.
Jesus take the wheel.
Last week I went to pick up my cousin at her house, and i had to pull over on my way there and plug the address into the GPS so I could follow the purple line. My cousin lives ten minutes away and I've made the trip over a hundred times. But somehow I find myself completely confused when I try to find the way by myself. In my head I see the starting point and the destination, but the path to get there is nowhere in sight... so many questions in my head with how to get from 'here' to 'there'!
There are other times I am 'completely sure' about where I'm going. I see the road and where it leads, and I am 'positive' i know exactly what I'm doing and where I need to turn. But despite my good intentions, I too often get distracted and miss an exit (and the next exit.. and the one after that.. turning around can become difficult when these things happen..), or confused by signs and lights... and still, I end up lost.
Lately God has been teaching me a lot about directions. I find myself confused and unsure about so many different parts of life right now. Sometimes I just feel completely LOST. But the thing is, just like when I drive I have a system that knows where i SHOULD be going... in life I have a God who knows my every path, and GUIDES me into all truth. My heart has been aching and desperate for a Savior, but so afraid to trust. So afraid that His ways aren't really the best for me, that He might not really be taking care of me..
It amazes me how often I FINALLY turn to my GPS, and I follow the purple line part of the way but then see where the line is going and I'll think to myself 'I know a faster way. I'm gonna deviate from these directions, because my way is better.' And then it amazes me how my way is actually NOT the better one, and the little machine had been right the whole time. But to me at that moment those directions couldn't POSSIBLY be right, I knew a MUCH better way that I had taken before.. too bad I forgot that i had gotten lost THAT time too.
I do that with the Lord as well. He has a path for me, and sometimes i can even see the path so clearly! I know right from wrong, I am capable of making good choices. But I find myself trusting in myself, and thinking my way might be better than the one God has set out for me. I find myself running. Running in the wrong direction.
But He NEVER lets go. When I go the wrong way in the car, when I get off the path the GPS has set out for me, the screen changes and says, 'RECALCULATING..' and sets a new path to get me to the same place. It might take a little longer, and it might not be the easiest way. But that's just an effect of me trying to take things in my own hands.. the path gets longer and harder. But still managable, the end is still in sight. Just not as easy to get to if I had followed the directions the right way in the first place.
And I think that's what God does with me. In His mighty works of forgiveness, when I try to go my own way, and I make mistakes, He simply tells me 'recalculating..' Well, with a lot of love and compassion, He wraps me in His arms, the only place of perfect peace, and starts my path over, giving me new directions again, and guiding me the whole way. And its continually up to me to choose to follow and trust His directions. Sometimes that feels like a lot of work to me.. choosing to do the right thing all the time. I wish God would just choose for me. But He is a perfect gentleman, and doesn't force a thing on me. He does the hard work, the placing of the path, the deciding for my life, the creating, the embracing, the encouragment along the way. So all I have to do is make a choice.. and trust that the Creator of the universe knows exactly what He is doing.
Jesus take the wheel.
No comments:
Post a Comment