By: Renee davis
Most people in America have taken at least one road trip in their lives. Short or long, you run across 3 things: road signs, road blocks, and road kill.
I remember our first road trip using a GPS system. For a person with my personality, this can be difficult the first time around. The system we used in the past worked well for me. My husband drove and I used my trusted laminated map of the US to navigate. I knew every turn before we even started the car. Now, not only am I unable to see what’s ahead of me, but I somehow end up in a verbal disagreement with the voice inside the box, even when I’m not at the wheel. Although we made this trip many times, the route somehow seemed different. It really required a lot of trust.
Since I was not “needed”, I had a lot of time to think. I began to wonder why the Lord never shows us the roadmap of our lives. I guess in His infinite wisdom, He knows that not only will we question His sovereignty and try to choose a better, faster route we will become even more confused about His ultimate will for our lives. Instead, He’s more like the GPS, giving us just enough information to navigate one day at a time.
I also began to wonder how I was doing so far on my journey. Did I heed the road signs? When I ran into road blocks did I take the correct detours? And most importantly, did I leave behind a lot of road kill? Were there broken hearts, wounded wills and shattered dreams littering the side of the road? Were the lives I touched better or worse for having encountered mine? I’d like to think that my goal was to provoke sighs of contentment, warm hugs, contagious giggles and therapeutic cries. I’m not so convinced that I have accomplished these goals. It sounds cliché but I know that the ones closest to me lay scattered about the road side. Thank God that His grace and mercy, which is new every morning, gives me the strength to scrape them up, patch them together and take another shot at loving them.
So although I don’t know what the Lord has in store for the rest of my life, I do know the final destination. My hope is to pick up some hitch hikers along the way, introduce them to the driver and not get into verbal disagreements with the navigator.
