To Live is Christ — whatever the route

Yesterday I drove four hours to attend a community reunion today. On the highway getting here, signs marked a construction zone with the usual slower speed and double-fine warnings. Two lanes of traffic slowed to stop-and-go. I noted the time and my speedometer reading at the beginning and then again when traffic flow resumed. It took 30 minutes to drive 8 kilometers. In that time, there was no sign of work being done, no workers in that stretch of highway, and no indication why drivers were doing 15-20 instead of 50 km/h.


When I stopped for lunch a woman in the cafe asked me if I'd driven that route and expressed her anger and impatience over the delay. I thought about my own response. Right at the beginning, I was about to be annoyed, but I had no appointment to keep, lots of fuel in my vehicle, air conditioning (it was 32 C) and no reason to feel hassled. Traffic always reminds me that patience is a choice, even though I sometimes fail to choose it.


This morning I'm thinking about that seeming delay in a different way. What if it was in the plan of God to keep me safe? What if He knew something I didn't about the rest of my journey? What if it was a test to see if I would act like Jesus?Today's reading is mostly about discipline and correction, but it is also about walking in His ways. Sometimes His path takes me on a scenic route and sometimes over dead fall and through rocky places. Sometimes the pace is rapid and sometimes, as yesterday, very slow. How I respond to His leading is a test of faith. Do I trust Him in all of this?

You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. (Deuteronomy 8:5)

Now that I'm at my destination, I find out that someone was killed on that route this past week. A piece of something flew off a truck, went through her windshield, and took her life. Again I think of the sovereignty of God. In His plan, it was her time. In His plan, it was time for me to drive slowly, for whatever reason.


God does not always show me the purpose of things that happen. When he corrects me, I usually know very quickly what He is doing. Other than fixing something wrong in my life, this correction helps me trust Him when things do not make sense. He is good and His mercy endures forever. He has a good plan for my life.


I'm thankful that I arrived safely at today's destination. This is a reminder and even added assurance that someday I will arrive safely at my final destination. Walking in His ways puts me on unexpected paths, but because they are His paths, I want to obey Him with patience, trusting Him to take me wherever He wants me to go even when I do not understand the route.