The GPS Battle

As I was driving yesterday, and "Maxine", my Maxima GPS lady was (annoyingly) trying to direct me to my patient's house, I had my spiritual light bulb go off.  Now I know this may sound like a strange time to be receiving messages from God, but I truly believe that He uses every day routines and situations to speak something powerful to us...and I love that!  

As you all know, when you take a road that is off of a GPS's route, they alert you to your mistake and then list turns to help you get back on track...and they keep talking (and talking and talking) until you're finally back on the set path.  Well, yesterday, Maxine was being very annoying and persistent in trying to correct me when I took a back road, when I knew where I was going the whole time.  I was just trying to make a detour to go through Dunkin Donuts to get a decaf coffee!  Is that a crime?? lol  I tried to tell her this, but she wouldn't listen.  She just kept telling me to make U-turns here, turn right and then another right, blah, blah, blah...she's a very determined little booger.  I started to just delete the destination because her voice was irritating me, when God spoke to me.

He said, "Now you know how I feel!  Time after time, I have tried to get you to your 'final destination' (whether it be getting into nursing school, meeting your husband, having a child...the list goes on and on), and sometimes I like to take you down the back roads to get there.  But you're like a GPS system.  You just can't stand the fact that I'm not following the path that YOU have set out on, and so you nag me the whole trip about how I am taking the wrong way, when, quite frankly, I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING.  You say, 'Why are You taking me this way, Lord?', 'Why didn't You turn there?', or 'When will we get there, already??'...when all you need to do is sit back, trust me, and let Me drive.  Sometimes the detours I take you on are far more scenic and some may even get us to the destination quicker than you'd think.  And if you'd stop trying to direct the path and look hard enough, you might find that I've left some unexpected blessings along the way."

Whoa.  This really hit home for me!  During the beginning of our infertility battle, I was so focused on the end result, the final destination, of becoming a mother, I didn't even think about all the different routes that could bring us there.  All I could think was, "This should be working.  We've been trying for six months now.  We've done everything we should be doing to get from Point A to Point B...why aren't we pregnant yet??"  Now that I have let God take over the driver's seat, I can see the beauty in the journey that He has taken us on...through all the back roads, the more "scenic" routes, the bumps in the road.  It's all a part of His plan to get us to that place we so desire to be, but we just have to silence the inner GPS system in us and let Him determine the path we take!

Now, I know I talk a lot about God speaking to me, and I want to explain this a little more.  If you've never had God speak to you, then you might not know what He sounds like.  It may be a different experience for everyone, but for me, it's not a big booming voice like you hear on movies, and the clouds don't part and let the sun shine through solely on me right when He's speaking...it's simpler than all that.  When God talks to me, I randomly have a thought placed on my heart, one that I can't seem to shake.  The thought keeps repeating itself, like He's "pulling on my heart strings", until I take a moment to acknowledge what the Lord is trying to tell me.  What He tells me may be a simple command, like, "Tell the cashier to 'Have a blessed day!'", or, "Offer to do some chores around the house for your patient".  It may be a more complicated message, like this story, but God always has a purpose in what He is telling me---He doesn't just waste His breathe! You may be thinking, "Does God talk to me??"  And the answer is: YES!  The Lord might be talking to some of you right now, and you just haven't known what to listen for...so turn up those spiritual hearing aides and pay attention! ;)