Donna Naborsyour Spiritual jewelry box.

 

My Only Trip to Missouri

Earlier this year, my husband and I took a vacation to Northwest Arkansas. We love antiquing, so we planned a route to visit all the antique stores and junk stores in the area over a few days. One store was in a small town on the border of Arkansas and Missouri. Not knowing the area, we used Google Maps for directions. We followed its GPS, Global Positioning System. There weren’t any direct highways, and the directions took us down a few rural roads, which was fine with us. The scenery was beautiful.

Then we made a turn, positioning us on a smaller road with a sign stating the next two miles were an unpaved road. As we traveled forward, we saw linemen putting up electric poles, so we assumed this was a new development where the road would be completed soon. A few miles in, more than two, we had left the linemen and civilization behind. But Google Maps said we were on the right road.

Thankfully, we were in my husband’s truck. We navigated across small areas of water, around downed tree branches, and over some rocky areas on the trail called a road. My husband has a much more adventurous spirit than I do. There wasn’t room for an oncoming car to pass, but that wasn’t a problem since we were the only ones on this road. After what seemed like hours, but was probably 15 or 20 minutes, the unpaved road ended.

We hit pavement, though not a lot better, and drove into an older neighborhood of the small town with the antique store. As we emerged from our adventure , my husband realized the truck was almost out of gas. There were no gas stations. So, of course, trusting our map again, I looked for the nearest gas station. It was a few miles north, past the antique store, into Missouri. That trip had its own stories, but we got the gas we needed and made it back to the antique store on the border in Arkansas.

I’m not sure why the map directions took us down this unpaved road. The directions back where we came from were on paved farm roads and state highways. But we trusted the map both ways.

This past Sunday, one of our pastors talked about following map directions even when they don’t make sense, and I thought about this experience. He emphasized obeying God, even when we don’t understand or see the end of the road He places us on. It’s a different kind of GPS–God’s Positioning System.

Do we trust God’s directions and follow what He asks us to do, even when it takes us down roads we don’t understand? When we can’t see the light ahead? When we take the next step, though we can barely see it, He has a plan. Even if His map seems to take us on a series of right turns just to end up where we started on the first road, He has a reason. Trust it. Trust Him.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).