I was not having a good day. I didn’t feel very well, and I woke up around 4:00 in the morning to get to work on time, but despite giving myself over a half hour extra to get to work I was over a half hour late.
The roads were icy and so bad the highway was backed up for over twelve miles due to four separate car accidents. I was really stressed, but once it was obvious I would be late despite praying about it I tried to just accept it the best I could.
Once I got to work I ended up making up the time I lost because of being late by staying at work later, which I wasn’t too excited about because I normally got out before rush hour started. But because of the delay I would probably get home much later than I wanted to. I couldn’t mail all of the documents I was supposed to at the end of the day because we were out of envelopes, but it was time to go home, I was ready. I normally knew the way home by heart, but since I was less focused and sleepy I decided to depend on the GPS, because I was somewhat distracted.
After some driving I noticed the GPS told me to turn down a road I didn’t normally use. I tried reselecting my home address as the destination just in case I mistakenly picked the wrong location to see if that would make a difference in the directions but it didn’t. I knew if the traffic was really bad my GPS would automatically give me an alternate route, so it wasn’t too shocking that the way home looked different from usual, considering how bad the roads had been that day and the time of day I was driving. Although I still wanted to use the road I normally did and was tempted to keep driving until I saw it, but since I wasn’t feeling well and it was getting dark I decided to just go with it.
I soon found myself driving through some 25-mile-per-hour town I knew nothing about in a location I knew little about besides the name. I thought to myself that if this was the supposedly faster route the GPS gave me due to the rush hour traffic , it was stupid, but my general annoyance was often broken by the beautiful scenery. However, needless to say I was home much later than I normally would have been, and as the frosting on top of the cake of a bad day I somehow managed to get my foot caught in the glass door on my way into the housem which left my heel with a bleeding wound which my cat kept trying to rub up against in his excitement to finally see me.
So after a long day I was sick, tired, bleeding, hurt, and delayed. I didn’t even bother trying to wash my wounds of cat fur and went to bed. While I appreciated and noted the beautiful scenery I still complained about the GPS’s stupid road trip that didn’t save me any time, or so I thought. The next day on the way home I noticed something. Although I had blamed the GPS’s alternative route for the delay in getting home, I didn’t see the road it told me to take before my normal exit. So, while I disliked what the GPS told me to do I must have missed my own exit anyway, and failed to notice it for a while, because the highway number that I turned off on due to GPS’s instructions actually came after the road I normally took home. If I had followed my own assumption that I would be better off ignoring the instructions and looking for the road I normally took, it would have been a really bad day as I would have really been late and that got me thinking.
We have all been sick and tired with sin, and we have all missed our exit with the distractions of life. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.” Isaiah 53:6-7
When Yeshua tries to redirect us how many times do we get annoyed thinking he is sending us on some stupid detour which would only delay us from getting to where we need to be. How often do we complain about what God says to do assuming that we know better when in reality we already messed ourselves up and he is trying to fix it? Sometimes when we are annoyed with the way things are unfolding as I was we should remember that God can see the end from the beginning and we can trust that God knows the best way to get us where we need to be, even if it seems annoying at the time. “Even gold is tested for genuineness by fire. The purpose of these trials is so that your trust’s genuineness, which is far more valuable than perishable gold, will be judged worthy of praise, glory and honor at the revealing of Yeshua the Messiah.” 1 Peter 1:7. When God is the one giving you directions you can know the map isn’t stupid. Trust the Bible to take to where you need to be and enjoy the scenery in life more than you complain.
Picture originally found here
