Listen to Your Tour Guide
A few years ago I was traveling to speak at a weekend ladies retreat which was six hours away from my home. The journey was not only eventful but I was thrown every detour I could possibly run into. The GPS was telling me to go one way, while the printed directions said to go another. I knew the direction I had to go, was following the printed directions, yet the GPS kept telling me to make a U-turn and go in the opposite direction. None of it made sense. I felt like Alice down the rabbit hole.
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This trip was a new adventure for me. For the first time I was driving solo. I had never ventured out of my home area by myself any further than a couple of hours away. I knew my area, how to get to where I was going, and how to get myself home. This trip however, was into the Great Unknown for me. To say I was a little apprehensive would be an understatement, yet I was completely calm.
On this trip I ran into one road construction project after another. There were detour signs galore. Yet, I always ended up back on the right road in the direction I needed to be going. At one point even a huge thunderstorm and hard rain pelted my new car as I tried to navigate the highway and keep myself on the road and from running into another vehicle. But that didn’t stop me from moving forward toward my goal.
On the final stretch of road I knew I was nearly there. Yet, once again a detour. This time there was a complete road block with a detour sign which was pointing the opposite direction. I stopped in the middle of the road and looked at the sign. Really? Left? The place I was going, I knew in my heart, was not that direction. I looked left. Nothing. Then I looked right. There was a road. In my heart I heard, “Turn right.” So I did.Up and over a set of railroad tracks and down this dusty road I went. I wasn’t sure how far I would go, but suddenly there was a gravel road going to the left and I heard again, “Turn here.” So I did. Now I’m in the middle of a huge corn field, on a gravel road, in the middle of nowhere, out of my area and alone. Great.
Suddenly though, there was a stop sign in the middle of the corn field. Who put that there? I stopped. I looked to the left and instantly saw the rail road track that I just had crossed earlier. Hm. So I turned left, crossed the tracks, and then stopped at the stop sign there. When I looked to the left, there was another barricade with a detour sign. I was on the other side of the road block. I had gone around it without having to take the opposite direction.
I turned right and was back on the road I had come in on and back on track to my destination. Within minutes I was where I was supposed to be. At my hotel. Safe. Secure. Relieved. And yes, I was thanking God for getting me to my destination.
That was several years ago. The ladies retreat was amazing. It was small, but for a first time speaking engagement, it was just what I needed, just what they needed, and I made a brand new friend and discovered a sister in Christ.
That trip taught me a lot about trusting God to get you where you’re supposed to be. The enemy throws many detours our way to trip us up, put us on the wrong road, send us in the wrong direction and just really mess with our lives. But when we absolutely know which direction we’re supposed to go, those detours won’t deter us at all, even if they tell us to go in the opposite direction.
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Not even Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, can keep you from doing what God has called you to do. But along the way, those interruptions and detours can become an entertaining and fun adventure if you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you.
My point is this; if you stay focused on your Tour Guide (God), then all the other distractions will be just the sights you get to see during your tour. By staying focused on Him, you will reach your destination safe, sound, and better than when you began… and you just might have a laugh or two along the way.
Trust me.
Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left. ~Isaiah 30:21 (NLT)
