We can make our plans,
but the Lord determines our steps.
As I slid into the driver’s seat of the car, I heard five-year-old Kate ask from the back seat, “Nana, do you have a map in your head?” I smiled to myself because I knew that she did NOT like to be lost. Nor do I.
I drove this past weekend to see my cousin in California. She has not been well and it had been awhile since we had spent any time together. Normally, Mark is my navigator but I headed off on this trip by myself.
Always a planner, my normal routine is to print out directions from my computer. But since my vision is a little off these days, I knew it would be difficult for me to read while driving. So now we have a map in the palm of our hand — the iPhone. I have a couple of apps that speak the directions as you drive. Perfect!
The route was a different one from previous trips but shorter. All was well, until I found myself in an area that I had never been in before. That shorter route was taking me the back way.
I began to have doubts about this lady in the phone. And at one point, she directed me in the opposite direction of what I thought would be the right way, confirmed by the compass in my car. As I pulled to the side of the road to “recalculate,” I realized a couple of things. One teeny, tiny setting on the phone had been inadvertently turned off so she didn’t know where I was (part of the GPS). Once toggled on, she turned me around and I headed off again in the right direction.
Yet, anxiety ran its course through me. Can I trust these directions? Would I ever see anything familiar? How late would I be? However, I continued to follow her directions and eventually, I pulled up into the driveway — I made it!
As I thought about this story, my life with Christ is much the same way. He has a plan for me but the directions are given in a step-by-step manner. I can’t see the big picture, much like the directions on my phone. I have the choice to turn the opposite way of the directions and get very, very lost. Or, I can choose to trust God, even when the directions don’t make sense at the time, and follow the path He has set out before me.
What preparations are available to us as we walk this path called Life? What do we need to make sure is toggled on so that I can hear and see where God is leading me?
1. Check out the map — God’s Word.
2. Depend on the Holy Spirit to lead us.
3. Trust God when the way is clouded to get us to our final destination.
