GPS Spaghetti

Earlier this summer, I traveled through a town that was unfamiliar to me. In the rain. Late at night. Cruising along in one of three interstate lanes at 70 mph, I was focused on getting safely to my destination. Unfortunately, I still had an hour to go and felt pretty fatigued. Suddenly, my spacious freeway narrowed to one lane and I found myself boxed in by concrete walls on both sides. Carefully I navigated this tight passage, slowing to about 45 mph. Construction vehicles and signs appeared amidst blazing lights. All of this was blurred by the constant rainfall and the swish of the windshield's wipers. Feeling a bit disoriented, I glanced up at my GPS for clarity. What I saw was the oddest configuration I'd ever seen on a map. It looked like a tangle of spaghetti noodles. The visual effect was dizzying. I felt fear rising up.

Immediately I averted my eyes from the GPS. Commands came from somewhere inside of me; Don't look around at the traffic or the exits. Just focus on the lane directly in front of you. Get through this mangled morass of pavement and beyond these cement embankements. Don't think about anything beyond that.

Taking a deep breath, I refocused on the immediate. After a mile or so, my lane widened back into a recognizable highway. The rain still pummelled my vehicle but the construction equipment was gone. The impenetrable walls that had seemed to suffocate me now melted away with the miles. The GPS made sense again and the path ahead was unmistakable. I breathed a sigh of relief. “Life is like that confusing picture sometimes,” I heard the Spirit's whisper. “But its really just a dance; I lead and you follow. Learn from Peter and don't look around. All you need to see is Me. I got this!”

Fear comes when I attempt to gaze too far into the future, to untangle the seemingly endless strands of “what ifs” up ahead. Isaiah 45:2 “I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron.” There's comfort in remembering that He goes before me, straightening out every single spaghetti noodle.

(Image by PhotoMix from Pixaby)