But on my most recent and most tedious of drives to the Houston Medical Center (thanks to endless construction and rerouting of routes) I was reminded of the most important things about God from the unlikeliest of places...
My Google-Maps GPS.
I call her my "Ho".
I know, not a very Christian word to use, let alone name for something (or someone!) - I'm not sure why we call her that, it just fits for some reason. So we call her our "Ho."
Before the tangled web of construction mess of 290 - one of the main highways to the Medical Center - I knew how to get there. I'd been there so often over the years in "Life with Autism, Seizures, and a side of PANDAS" that I could drive it blindfolded. But since the construction and widening or whatever it is they have been attempting to do with it for months on end now - I have no clue how to get there. I know the general direction - but they have changed the roads so often it's hard to keep up.
So, I've had to depend on my "Ho" to get me there.
On this day, she told me to turn toward a direction that I knew was not the direction of the medical center. I had cut my time leaving down to the "you have no room to mess up" time - and I guess I was just in no mood for exploring new roads -- so I ignored where my ho was telling me to go and decided to trust my "tried and true" same way there that I've always gone. Or at least the same direction I always headed towards to get there...
Big mistake.
Huge!
About five minutes after the point of no return on exiting where she told me to exit, I realized why she wanted me to exit there...
The solid red line on my google-maps screen made that painfully obvious.
She saw a wreck up ahead that I could not see and she tried to warn me but I didn't listen.
I instead felt my way was better.
Thought I knew best.
With nothing else to do but sit in a traffic jam for minutes on end listening to Brandon's non-stop humming in the back seat -- I had to chuckle at the lesson I was painfully and impatiently learning.
How many times do I play this game with God?
How many times do I think I know a better way for me than God?
How many times do I think I know more than God in how I trust me, not Him?
Oh what I could truly avoid if I would once and for all trust and believe how God knows more than me! How God sees the road ahead and how he tries so valiantly to get me to exit off the path riddled with roadblocks and instead turn on to his path of prosperity?
Oh how I would have arrived at the Medical Center on time if I had just listened to my Ho!
She was trying to be the Jeremiah 29:11 of faith and I refused to listen.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
I thought my plan was better and I soooo did not prosper!
And I paid the price for that.
It's hard to have trust like that.
It's hard to say, "Jesus take the wheel" and to trust where He takes me!"
It's hard to give up control of your life, your everything, to a God you cannot see.
It's even harder to follow in obedience of where he wants you to go, especially if it's a different direction than where you wanted to go!
But that's the essence of what faith is, of what HOPEISM is!
Trusting!
The next time my Ho tells me to exit, I'm going to exit!
And I will trust what Isaiah 30:21-23 promises me in that when I trust God, he will not fail.
You will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way. Follow it, whether it turns to the right or to the left."
Much as if I would only learn to listen to my GPS-ho in the car - when I hear God's voice in life telling me which way to go - I will prosper.
When I leave behind all the idols that lure me away from God, I will find prosperity. When I leave behind my stubbornness and pride and thinking I know best, I will find prosperity! When I leave behind anything that hinders me from following God, I will find prosperity!
Then you will dishonor your silver-plated idols and your gold-covered statues. You will throw them away like clothing ruined by stains. You will say to them, "Get out!" Then Lord will give you rain for the seed that you plant in the ground, and the food that the ground provides will be rich and nourishing.
Prosperity comes from putting God first and following him and his directions.
Endless time stalled in traffic jams come when you don't!
When I leave God's path, much like when I left my ho's path, I will face correction.
Whether it be discipline or a delay.
When we hear that voice - God's voice - we would do well to follow it.
He will never steer us wrong.
(I just wish sometimes His voice was as clear in certain situations in life as "Ho's" voice is in the car when she says, "There's a 15 minute delay ahead, click here for alternate route...)
(and Ho's voice too)
(always follow that when in the car)
(oy...)
