Let me tell you a story.
A few years ago, our family took a road trip to from our home here in Indiana to Virgina. We visited a church camp there and had a wonderful time. But the story I want to tell you happened on the way home.
Now, when this family takes a road trip, we do something different from probably most people. We go into our GPS settings and turn on the “Avoid Interstates” option. There is just something about getting off the main roads and taking the roads where less people are. Everyone enjoys it and it makes the whole trip more fun. You get to see things and places that most people don’t get to when they’re flying down the interstate.
So that’s what we did on the way home from Virginia. Coming through West Virginia, we took the highway that runs through the New River Gorge. We had visited the bridge the previous year on our way to or from that church camp, so we changed things up. Decided to see some new scenery.
After enjoying the beautiful waterfalls and views, we decided we’d better keep moving towards home. We loaded everyone back in the vehicle, a Suburban at that time, and kept following the GPS.
Not too much later, the GPS told us to turn on to WV Highway 26. Ok, not a problem. Except the road didn’t stay a road for long. Soon, we were driving on a mountain path that consisted of more mountain than path. And the only thing high about it was how far up we had to climb.
I took this picture before the road got super crazy. Before it was all said and done the “road” was dirt. At least, it was dirt between the rocks and tree roots. We were very thankful for a Suburban. Otherwise, I’m sure we would have ended up stranded with no cell phone service until the cows came home. And then some.
I have to admit, I thought we must have taken the wrong turn. How on earth could this be the road we were supposed to be on? There must have been a mistake somewhere. Either I had misread the map, or the GPS must be wrong. There were no other options, right?
Well, turning around wasn’t doable so we had to follow this crazy “highway” clear to the end, wherever that turned out to be. Finally, we came back down the mountain. Finally, the road turned back to gravel. And, finally, we came to the next road we needed to take.
I still remember rolling my window down, twisting clear around, craning my neck, and finding the road sign to see just what road we had actually been on.
It said, “Highway 26”.
That whole time, we had been right where we needed to be. There was no mistake. I didn’t read the map wrong and the GPS didn’t give us the wrong directions. It was the right road.
So why tell you this story? Well, life is like this sometimes. Sometimes, even when we try our best to follow God’s directions and make the right choices, we end up in places where we are positive we messed up somewhere.
We find ourselves thinking, “There’s no way God meant for me to end up here. I must have blown it.” We tend to send ourselves into panic mode trying to figure out how we took the wrong turn, what we can do to “fix it”, and on and on.
But someone said something in church Sunday that is so simple and still so true. The co-pastor was preaching and in his message, he made this statement, “Stop trying to figure out the path, and get to know the Guide”.
That’s all it takes. The better we know Jesus, the better we can follow and trust His leadership. Even when the road looks like West Virginia Highway 26.
Bringing Life 