Highways

I gripped the steering wheel fiercely for one doesn’t arrive efficiently in the city if one hesitates. “You drive different in Denver,” my kids tell me.

I do. She who hesitates misses the exit.

Looking ahead, I can see a gap in traffic that will let me move toward the exit. My goal is not to dart to and fro, but to get to my destination as simply as possible. I’m making the straightest line I can make for my target.

There’s a walking path down by the river that meanders through the trees and breaks free to view the flowing water. The path forks often, with the new little lanes wandering haphazardly through the countryside. Any path will get me back to the parking lot eventually but some take longer than others. There isn’t a straight line anywhere.

My son tells me that God doesn’t make straight lines. That's the domain of people: straight lines.

I had jury duty this week. I was caught in jury traffic for 3 hours, sitting in the courtroom with nothing to do, waiting on lawyers. I wanted to get to my exit but there was no moving. I had to look ahead. Would I get to the afternoon spa session with my daughter? Would I make the quiz practice?

I slid appointments here and there, not knowing when we’d be sent out of the courthouse. It’s hard to plan for exits when the traffic isn’t moving.

I find my heart longs for less of the four-lane highway and more of the river path. Where once I conquered and planned and scheduled, now I want to meander and contemplate and compare.

Oswald Chambers wrote about the haphazard being part of God’s order. I yearn for God’s haphazard, the walking on his path even when it’s the long way around and I can’t see the exits. Jesus didn’t carry a Daytimer and he didn’t refuse to spend three days in Samaria because he had an appointment in Caesarea.

Our world is different from his, but my soul longs for God’s haphazard today.

How does a follower of Jesus handle the four-lane highway of our age? I’m guessing it has to do with recognizing God’s hand in every moment and relishing each as a gift from him.