The Long Way Home

As I was traveling from Tennessee to my home in Kentucky yesterday, I noticed my gas tank was getting low and I needed to stop for gas. After doing so, I checked the GPS app on my phone. I have traveled this route a few times, but still feel the need to use the directions since I don't travel it frequently and it has several turns. I knew that usually I go through Lexington, which would be the next city along the way. But, when I looked at the directions, it pointed me to turn left away from the parkway that I had been on. Although I realized when I looked at the highway number that I could go that way, it seemed like it might take a little longer. So, I re-plugged my address into the GPS, this time adding my actual street address versus just the destination city. It re-calculated and put me back on my original route through Lexington. 

I laughed at how probably a mile difference in the destination address changed the entire route of the last 2 hours of the trip. And probably because I was listening to an introspective audio book, I also thought about how this relates to life. How one little decision can potentially impact the trajectory of our journey. How it affects the scenery and even the people we get to meet along the way. I could relate this to a million examples from  my life...when I chose right or wrong, where I sat in my first grad school class, when I switched my major in college, when I said "yes" to being a volunteer and "no" to a salary, when I decided on a church family or just even where I sit in church, when I decided to move to another apartment....and on and on.

And when I go down that path of thinking, I get a little stressed about making small decisions....or "big" ones. Until I remember the best part of that story...that no matter which route I chose when I looked at my GPS, I still would have ended up at the same place....home. And that I must trust my Creator to get me where He wants me, regardless of the route I take.