In this life - this journey - we are constantly traveling along, there are choices we make. You can think of the whole thing - the journey - as if you were driving. If I choose to drive, to be in control I am taking on quite the obstacle. It would be one thing if I KNEW exactly where I was going. If it was a place that I had been to over and over, but you and I both know that we have no clue where this journey is taking us. I can sit in the drivers seat, driving along all while trying to drive, read directions, and keep my eyes on the road. Even if I have my handy dandy GPS, it is still something I have to figure out, have to listen to, have to pay attention to, and even something to distract me. I will take my eyes off the road; my eyes off the directions. I will make wrong turns, I will get distracted and there will come a time or two or three, when I lose my way completely. After all, I have no clue where I am going. I may be one of those people that has a pretty good sense of direction. Great! But, I would have to know where I am going to "sense" the direction, yes? I think you are beginning to see that I am setting out to fail. There is no way I can get where I am supposed to be going and get there when I am supposed to, all while making the right turns along the way.
I can't drive. I can't do it all on my own. But, there is someone who can - God. When I step out of the drivers seat, He steps in and takes the wheel. Giving Him the freedom to take the wheel and drive. He is the only one who knows the way. When He is in the drivers seat I am able to keep my eyes fixed on the journey. Not to mention that I get to enjoy the ride. I can see all the things I would have never seen if I was in the drivers seat. I get to take in the beauty of the journey. All the "scenic routes" - the blessings - along the way. All things that I would have never seen or even noticed for that matter, had I been driving. Or maybe I would have noticed them, but because I was driving I would have veered off the journey.
There will be times along the journey when it requires me to go through a storm - the trials - but with God in the drivers seat there is nothing to worry about. He knows the way and He can calm the storm. Sometimes He will take me through them just so I can see that He is with me. He knows the way and I have nothing to fear. He takes me through to show and prove His love.
Sometimes the journey will grow dark and weary, the road almost seems to disappear and there are times when I can see the road ending. Yet, He knows the way and just when I was about to give up hope, there was a road of escape that I never saw and would have never seen had He not been driving. I would have stopped when I saw the road was getting rough, yet because He was driving we went to the end and there was the way of escape - the way that only He could provide and take me to.
When I let Him drive, I get to enjoy my time with Him. Getting to know Him, talking to Him, spending that sweet one-on-one time with Him. Yet, sometimes in the midst of all the good times - the easy roads, the ones that seem to span out flat and easy - I think I can do it on my own. I push, I shove, and I work my way back into the drivers seat. After all, He lets me drive when I really insist on it. Why not try it out?
There is something that only He would do though. He lets me in the drivers seat and allows me to take the wheel, but He never leaves me. He takes His place in the passengers seat and with a broken heart, watches as I try to navigate my way. A tear slips down His face as I take a wrong turn, He reaches for my hand when I fall asleep at the wheel, and His heart breaks over every storm I try to make it through on my own. But all along the way He is sitting there right beside me waiting and wanting me to let Him take the wheel - to let Him in the drivers seat. He never begs, never pushes, nor does He ever try to force His way back behind the wheel. He waits and He watches with a broken heart, hoping and praying I will let Him drive before it is too late.
When I have driven into the deepest, darkest place; I'm lost beyond all hope, it's a dead-end road. I get out of the car. I walk to edge and see it's a cliff. I've no where to go. I drop my head in shame. I stand there as tears begin to slip down my face. But then I feel a hand on my shoulder. He looks at me through tear filled eyes, and asks in a loving caring voice, "May I drive?". I burst into tears and hand Him the keys. I thought I could drive, I thought I would be okay. He hugs me, He picks me up and carries me to the passengers seat. Through eyes filled with tears I gaze up and say, "I'm sorry." He looks at me in love and says, "Rest now my child, I know the way."
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