I Know Where I'm Going...?

We just returned from a thoroughly enjoyable trip to visit family, including my mom, two sisters, and our oldest daughter and her family.  

My sisters and I arranged for a "sisters night" one evening during our trip. Such visits always include good food, some spontaneous singing of classic movie hits like "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music or "Good Morning" from Singing in the Rain, as well as reminiscing and laughing over childhood memories.  But by 10:30 that night, I figured I better head back to our daughter's house, which is about an hour away from my sister's place.

Even though I knew the route, I engaged the GPS on my phone, which tends to give me a sense of security; especially welcome as I drove alone that night, hundreds of miles from home.  A few miles into the drive, the GPS instructed me to take the next exit.  Miles and miles from my target exit, I continued on the interstate, mentally declaring, "I know where I'm going, and that's not the right way!"  

IMG_5035" by StephenVelasco is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

My GPS repeated this instruction at each subsequent exit for several miles.  Puzzled, I even went so far as to double-check that I had entered our daughter's address accurately, for each of these exits was miles from her home.   But I had entered the correct address, so I continued to ignore and override the recurring recommendation from the GPS to exit the interstate.

Within three miles of my exit, I crested a rise--and abruptly encountered a trail of brake lights.  All suddenly became crystal clear!  Only then did I understand why the GPS had been urging me to leave the interstate for an alternate route, since construction in the area had closed two of the three traffic lanes, leaving all travelers at a virtual standstill.  

My failure to follow the directions from my GPS meant it took me thirty minutes to travel the three remaining miles to my exit.  To add insult to injury, I was driving my son-in-law's Mazda with a standard transmission--no fun to drive in stop-and-go traffic.  (It did, however, give my left calf a great 30-minute workout as I engaged and released the clutch over and over and over again....)

I couldn't help but appreciate the applications of this experience on the interstate to our larger life experiences.  My own stubborn insistence that I knew the way to go paved the way for me to reject wise direction and counsel which could have saved me at least a half-hour of sleep--and a lot of self-recrimination--that night.  Thankfully, the price I paid that night for my hardheadedness was small.  

Sadly, it is not always so.  

Maybe we feel uncomfortable about some aspect of a developing relationship, but smother those niggling doubts without examining them further.  Perhaps we are contemplating a job offer which--despite including an attractive salary and benefits package--leaves us feeling unsettled.  It may be that we are drawn to a particular fad or fashion, and cannot conceive how indulging in it could possibly be harmful.  Or we may be sympathetic to a cause which is in conflict with the teachings of the Savior.  

42-15243430" by ccsdteacher is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 

We may be inclined--as I was that evening--to dismiss direction and counsel which seems to contradict what we know, what we see, what we feel, what we anticipate or what we expect.  But if the source of that direction and counsel is the Lord or His servants, we can be certain that down those roads we are contemplating there are delays and detours.   Recovering from these delays and detours will not be easy, and may bring us consequences we cannot now foresee.  

The writer of Proverbs said it like this, in chapter three:

5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

I hope I'll do a better job listening the next time I receive direction from true and reliable Sources encouraging me to reconsider my current route. I hope I'll remember that sometimes, I just can't see what They can.