The clock ticked.
Through the spokes of my steering wheel, my eyes detected it was getting closer to 10:30 a.m. Each dropping minute declared that I would not make it on time. I checked my destination via Google the past night and embedded it in my mind’s eye. Moments before I took off, I was positive I knew where I was going. That self-assurance was strong until I reached the fork in the road and I was ready to turn left.
“Turn right,” the sweet voice coming from my phone instructed.
Okay, but that will take me the opposite way from where I am going… maybe, this is a better alternative than what I researched.
I made a right and drove for 2 miles and picked up nothing from my GPS. Worried I put in the incorrect address, I stopped to check. It was the right one. Knowing the neighborhood, I carried out an immediate resolution to turn left on the next light. As any GPS would do when you don’t follow it, I heard,
“Rerouting.”
My GPS was sending me back to the direction where it first wanted me to go.
I pressed the gas pedal, determined to win this battle between my GPS vs. my wit and made a left turn. A strange thing happened. It did not reroute me. Instead, it directed me to go on driving and make a left on an approaching street so I can get to my destination, “North Country Elementary School.” This was not where I was going. I turned off the GPS and followed my own directions.
I made it late to my workshop, but I was not tardy for the message God taught me through my meanderings. His timing is impeccable.
For a year now, I have been embarking on the adventure of writing a book I felt God has commissioned me to write. I set a deadline to get it done this year. But being a woman of many passions and hobbies, I had created for myself a hectic schedule. A full-time teaching position. Two for-profit businesses. My Flowers for Elders’ non-profit. A budget coach on the side.
I did not devote a lot of time to one of my business but had been consistent with working my non-profit and the other business venture. Despite the excessive efforts I put in to get the latter going, I had achieved little success. Attendance to other executives‘ events in San Francisco, Boston, Arizona, Wisconsin, and other places was great. Why was I not seeing the same result in my town? For months I tried to figure out what was wrong but could not find the answer. I asked the same question as I left the house this same morning. The workshop I was attending was a last-minute change in plans since once again, my business event for this day fell through.
God whispered a two-fold answer through my GPS incident. Nowhere in the address I programmed was there anything I put in that was remotely even close to the place, North Country Elementary. I highlighted North because that was what blared at me. The first lesson I learned or relearned, was that the compass in everything I do has to be my True North, the Lord Jesus Christ. The direction I have to go to is toward what He has started in my life. Hebrews 12: 1-2 reminded me, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” I need to stop pursuing rabbit trails.
The second lesson I learned had to do with trusting Him. I got involved in one of my businesses as an Event Executive to hone my skills in flower arranging and benefit Flowers for Elders. It would also be a potential source of income when my husband, Sal, and I retire. Two passages came to me: Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God,” and Matthew 6:19-20 says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Though I need to be prudent in the stewardship of the resources given to me, I do not have to worry about the future. God has my future in His hands. I needed to pursue what brings Him glory, to obey Him, and show love for others. I need to get my story of God’s faithfulness shared and my book published. This was one way I could store up my treasures in heaven.