Who Is Choosing the Route?
Traffic, left turns, and learning to trust
Traffic can be a wonderful place to discover how much patience I still need.
I have a Tesla. I can give it a destination, and its driving assistance can take me along the route while I remain responsible for paying attention. What interests me here is that the route it chooses sometimes includes left turns across traffic that I would ordinarily avoid.
I look at the crossing and begin considering another approach. Perhaps I could enter from the other direction. Perhaps another road would bring me to the same place without that particular turn across fast-moving traffic. Sometimes the alternative takes longer; sometimes it takes no longer at all.
The destination remains the same, but the approach matters.
That has given me something to consider about my walk with God.
I can see the road immediately before me. I have memories of roads I have traveled, opinions about which ones I prefer, and a growing collection of places I would rather avoid. Yet I cannot see everything ahead. Traffic changes. An obstacle appears. Something hidden from my view becomes important before I have time to prepare for it.
How much of my life have I tried to direct from that limited view?
I know where I want to arrive. I would like peace, purpose, and a life that matters. I want to love my family well and be useful to the people God places around me. I also have some fairly definite ideas about which roads He should use to accomplish those things.
Then His direction begins taking me somewhere I would not have chosen.
Proverbs tells us to trust the Lord with all our heart, acknowledge Him in our ways, and allow Him to direct our paths. It also tells us not to lean upon our own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5–6)
That last part becomes very personal when my understanding is sounding an alarm about the route.
Surely this cannot be the way. It looks difficult. It seems to lead away from what I expected. From where I am sitting, it may appear to be the worst possible direction.
That is where I begin discovering what I mean when I say I trust Him.
With the car, I may have good reason to choose another road. Its route is something I can examine and change. With God, the question reaches into my relationship with the One who knows what I cannot see. Am I willing to receive His direction when it differs from my preference?
Scripture recognizes the place of our planning while reminding us that the Lord establishes our steps. (Proverbs 16:9) I can bring Him my plans, my concerns, and the reasons a particular turn troubles me. I can also leave room for Him to change my understanding of where we are going.
Jesus gave us the example.
He described doing what He saw the Father doing and speaking as the Father taught Him. His obedience expressed His love for the Father. (John 5:19; 8:28; 14:31) Consider the agreement within that relationship: His desire, His words, and His actions attending to the Father’s purpose.
That is the life toward which I want to grow.
I think of humanity bearing God’s image upon the earth, and I picture Adam before the fall living in that relationship. As I consider Christ’s example, I begin wondering what my own life might become as I yield more completely to Him. God created mankind in His image, and Paul speaks of our renewal after the image of our Creator. (Genesis 1:26–28; Colossians 3:9–10)
What would it mean to represent Him in the stretch of road I am traveling today?
Perhaps someone needs patience from me. Perhaps I need to speak honestly, forgive, wait, or surrender a decision I have been determined to make my own way. Those moments may look ordinary, but they give my relationship with Him somewhere to become visible.
I want to be attentive enough to follow. I want my desire for His will to become stronger than my insistence upon my preferred route.
There is authority in the Father’s purpose that I cannot supply for myself. When those who came to arrest Jesus drew back and fell to the ground, we received a glimpse of the One before them. Yet Jesus then willingly continued toward the Cross. (John 18:4–12) His authority and His surrender belonged together. The opposition before Him did not turn Him away from what He had come to accomplish.
That helps me consider the difficult roads differently. A hard passage does not tell the whole story of where God is leading. I may be unable to recognize His purpose from the intersection where I am standing. I can still ask for wisdom and take the next step of obedience I understand. James invites us to ask God for that wisdom. (James 1:5)
The traffic around me remains real. So do the responsibilities of paying attention, making decisions, and caring about those traveling beside me. Following Him reaches into all of that. It can change the way I respond long before it changes the circumstances around me.
Perhaps the delay gives me time to listen. Perhaps the unfamiliar direction exposes something I need to surrender. Perhaps I will understand the road only after I have traveled it with Him.
I am learning that I can bring Him the frustration without taking back the whole journey.
So the next time the route ahead looks unreasonable, I want to pause before insisting that my view is complete. I can tell Him what I see and ask Him to help me recognize His direction. Then I can offer Him the will that would so much rather choose for itself.
Traffic still needs to be reckoned with. So does the fellow who thinks he already knows the best way.
Lord, help me follow You through the part I cannot yet see.