Following a GPS

I can't stay silent forever. I know it has been since April 7th for a new post. But here I am.

My daughter Jennifer has been wanting a GPS for a while. She has really thought it would be good since she has moved to California and getting around in areas new to her. I had heard stories of people having one having it lead them out into the desert someplace or things like that. I thought it would be good to try one out since she thought they were so helpful. So I bought one and decided to try it out going to a ladies retreat about 4 hours from home. I've been at this retreat often but take different ways to get there and was not sure what way was best. I often picked up Heather and took her along so I needed to go through Lafayette, but this time she wasn't going, thanks to Randy deciding he needed to have a birthday that day. So I was not sure what way I wanted to go to get there. We had tried the GPS out just going to and from church one night and it took us a different way coming home then going. It also had us go past the highway that comes into our town to a county road a quarter mile farther out of the way. So when I was going to leave for the retreat I decided I'm going to do what the GPS told me no matter how much I disagreed with it. I am a rebel down deep and this can be hard.

To start with I had to pick up a prescription on the way in Warsaw, so I waited until I was leaving the drug store to set it. I put the address in for the hotel I was staying at. First thing off it wanted me to make a left turn out of the drug store and it was over the noon hour on a Friday and there is no way you are going to make a left turn out of there at that time of the day, so right off I'm going against what it is telling me to do. I went to the next corner and turned left again to go around the block. It says it is recalibrating so I thought we'll do what it says. It took me a block farther then needed and then had me come back again. So I was already wondering how many times it was going to take me out of the way that I did not know about. But I was now on my way. It took me south down SR 15, not what I expected but, ok. As I was driving and obeying this little box on my windshield, I thought I am really putting a lot of confidence in this thing to get me where I needed to go. I didn't know how it was going to get me there. I only knew how many miles I was supposed to drive before I made another turn. It told me what way I was going to need to turn and gave me the name of the road. But after that I didn't know how it was going to lead me. Then it didn't always use the name you would think it should use. It had me turn onto SR115 but it said to turn on CR 400. But when I got to 400, it was the county road that went east at the corner that 115 went SW. It gave street names instead of the HWY numbers through cities. It took me through Lafayette even though I didn't need to stop there this time. It didn't take the way through that Heather and Randy who live there would have said was best to go, but it got me through. There was a detour on 25 that once I turned off of how it wanted me to go it recalculated and took me down some little narrow county roads but then back on the highway again. Silly thing!

I was thinking along the way that following this GPS was sort of like following where God leads us. Only God doesn't make mistakes and I think this GPS does. But I had to be willing to give up what I thought was best and do what the GPS told me to do. Through life when we give up what we want and go where God leads us we will make it to the goal. Just like with the GPS we don't always know how God will lead us. It is not how we always think. Unlike the GPS though God knows where the detours will be. With the GPS it recalculated when I went off of the route it chose for me. God already knows when I'm going to do that and has a plan for that. He doesn't need to recalculate. It grieves him when I go off of his route for me. The GPS can get pretty demanding and I feel that I am being nagged at.

I'm not sure if I am a GPS kind of person. I like to have my route all planned ahead of time when I have somewhere I need to be in a certain amount of time. It takes some faith to trust that this little box is going to get me there. I don't think it will work well on little trips where we are being more spontaneous either. I enjoyed a trip that Jenn and I made this summer when she was home for a month. We went to the Creation Museum and on the way home we took a side trip to Metamora and then she took over the map and found there was another Milford. Maybe a GPS would have helped us find it as it wasn't on any highways. And getting back to the highway would have been less of a challenge, but I enjoyed the adventure. She was worried I think. She thought we needed the GPS then.

It was interesting as I had been writing this and had to leave it part way done to go have lunch with a dear friend that I went past a church with a message board out front that said:

GPS, stands for Gods Plan of Salvation. The best route. What timing.