NavigationGod: Not Your Typical New Year's Post, Part I

Let me first lay out the disclaimer that this is not your typical New Year’s post full of reflections and resolutions, in case the title did not indicate such with clarity.

Secondly, I must confess that while the illustration of God being your GPS system is a tired cliché, that’s exactly the illustration I am using. Sorry, I’m not sorry. 

I was fortunate to spend the tail end of the Christmas holiday with one of my favorite cousins, to go dress shopping and help prepare for her summer wedding. As corny as it sounds, it was a weekend truly filled with family, food, and fun.

After traveling for nearly a week and a half and with New Years right around the corner, I began the drive back to North Carolina with plenty of music, podcasts, and books on tape to keep me company. With my belly full, I said my good-byes and hopped into my car.

Feeding into my love-hate relationship with technology, I plugged in my address and hit the road, my confidence in direction decreasing with every mile marker passed. Nothing looked familiar from my ride up, and I began to check to the GPS every few minutes to see if I had missed a turn or how closely my next exit was.

Two things to note with this situation:

1. When driving, it is good practice to actually look at the road and, more specifically, the other cars on the road rather than being glued to a screen displaying a map.
2. When using a navigation system, it is good practice to actually trust that the computerized system knows where you are going better than your faulty memory, especially when in a place unfamiliar. 

In my...we’ll call it persistence…I continued to question, Am I going the right way? Why don't I recognize anything? 

My inquiries (voiced to no one in particular since I was driving alone) morphed into worry. Should I just turn around? Let me figure out how to re-route this thing. Why isn’t it re-calculating? 

Even though the mileage given until my next exit did not match the miles driven per my odometer, I was still concerned. That is until I realized, when you know where you are going and when you are supposed to turn, there is nothing for you to do but enjoy the ride until the time for change.

If I am not supposed to exit until I have driven 28 miles, it makes no sense to worry and recalculate at 14 miles just because nothing around me is familiar. 

Getting off a few exits early isn’t going to get me to my destination any sooner. In fact, it will prolong my trip.

Are you rushing something that God has prepared for you? If it is not time to get off on the exit, you must keep driving, slow and painful or confusing as it may be.

Come back for Part II...