What a trip!

Well, it's official: our vacation is actually coming to an end. I mean, yes we left Florida on Sunday morning and arrived home safely last night...but today was still vacation day for Dave, so if he's home it's still vacation. Oh well. The end was inevitable. We were blessed with amazing weather (Florida had cold/rainy weather before we got there and after we left, but was just about perfect every day we were there). And even though we didn't "do" a whole lot other than whatever we were in the mood for, we still managed to create lots of great memories and take lots of fun pictures. I've come home much more refreshed and energized to re-enter our busy schedule. I was going to put busy "routine", but I've decided there isn't much routine about my life.

So, I have to share a story from our trip home. You know I'm always looking for the lesson in everything and wondering what God wants me to learn next. So, of course there was such a moment (well, many actually) on our vacation. We had a very uneventful drive home until we got a few miles north of Lafayette, Indiana on I-65. Now, let me take a moment here to tell you a couple details about this location. First of all, our GPS did NOT take us this route on the way down. We had entered Indianapolis via I-69 on the way down. For some reason that only our GPS knows, it decided to route us out of Indianapolis via I-65 on the way home. And secondly, we were given fair warning of the impending situation we were about to be put in. But, because we hadn't been on I-65 much this side of Indianapolis on the way down we (quite mistakenly) assumed that would also be the case on the way home. So every time we saw warnings for what was awaiting us at exit 201, we noted them and then proceeded to say, "Well, that doesn't matter. We won't be on this highway that long." Duh. Should have taken more time to investigate the GPS's brain on that one. But, since our brains were tired from the many hours of driving, we didn't. We just trusted the GPS to lead us quickly to our destination: home.

So, now imagine this. I'm tired. Dave is driving. And I have gotten all comfy in the passenger seat and fallen asleep. Now, mind you the last thing I knew we were many miles south of exit 201 on I-65 and my brain was under the illusion that we would be directed to another route long before that time. I was completely not worried about the "situation" at exit 201 since I figured it had absolutely nothing to do with me. Well, imagine my surprise when I woke up to find lots of brake lights ahead of us and my wonderful husband joining in the red light brake pedal party. We were at this point at about mile marker 195 on I-65. Upon seeing what was ahead and also that we were just approaching a rest area (and knowing we had 3 children in the back seat), we decided it was prudent to make a pit stop before entering the parking lot (also known as northbound I-65) ahead. Well, let me take a side rabbit trail here a second to let you know what awaited us inside the rest area (keeping in mind that at this point, the thought of using one more public restroom is just about enough to make me want to cry or scream or jump into a hot shower the second we arrive home...which was supposed to be at 4:45 PM according to our wonderful GPS). As we get inside the doors of the rest area, here is what we read: "We're sorry, but the water at this rest area is not suitable for drinking or washing hands. Please use hand sanitizer." Gulp. Huh?! I mean, I've heard of not suited for drinking, but not suited for washing hands either?! Oh my. What kind of horrible sanitation nightmare have we gotten ourselves into?! Thank the Lord we had Shaklee Basic H2 wipes in the van, or I might have gone into a full blown panic attack.

So anyway, back to the other story. After sufficiently relieving ourselves and NOT washing our hands (thank you very much), we proceeded to enter into the joys that lied ahead on I-65. We had less than 6 miles to go before our exit. In fact, maybe at this point it was more like 4. I don't know exactly, but you get my drift. How long do you suppose it took us to get to exit 201 (which, by the way, wasn't technically "our" exit...but the highway was closed due to the accident and they were routing all the traffic off the highway at this exit)? It took us about 2 hours and 20 minutes. Yep. Really. As slowly as I run, I could have run back and forth between that rest area and exit 201 during that time. Back AND forth. It was sheer misery. Now, I have to say a few things quickly here. For one, I know that the reason the highway was closed was probably due to someone in that accident either losing their life or becoming seriously injured. I know no amount of sitting on the highway can compare to that. And, our children were totally entertained by the "Brady Bunch" on DVD. And, not one of them had an emergency potty need during that time. For that, I guess I can thank the disgusting rest area that began this whole thing. So I'm not necessarily complaining here, because compared to lots of others in this situation we had it pretty darn good. But I'm sharing the scenario to share the lesson that God taught me in this.

(I'm getting to that one...hang with me here.)

So as we finally get to the top of the off ramp, we (of course) choose to go the opposite way of what they're directing all the other thousands of vehicles. Because, for one, we aren't that stupid. And, for another, they were re-routing them back onto I-65 by heading west...and we already thought that I-65 was west enough of our final destination. So we hauled out our trusty atlas and saw a much smarter (and more easterly) route home. So here's where we get to the lesson part. As we're driving east and heading to the route that our map has shown us is the best route home, our GPS keeps telling us to turn around. Do you have a GPS? Imagine the GPS lady continuing to say, "Calculating route. When possible, make a legal U-turn." And which way was the GPS trying to lead us? The same way all that traffic was being re-routed. The same way that we had just seen was a horrible way to go and NOT the direction we wanted to be headed. Every time we passed another crossroad and another chance to "do a legal U-turn" the GPS would say it again, "calculating route...when possible make a legal U-turn." It got downright funny after a while (and then it got annoying and Dave had to mute it). And even though Dave was trying to tell the GPS to exclude that route, it still kept trying to lead us that way. Ah. There's the lesson.

How often are our family, or peers or the world acting like that GPS? Trying to lead us down a path that just isn't the right way to go. And I'm not even saying that all these routes are necessarily dangerous or bad...just not what's right for us. And hey, why not just follow them? I mean, that GPS is pretty darn smart. It knows every single road out there (so it can keep telling me to do a U-turn in them)! It can even tell me which lane of the highway to drive in! How could I ever think to question that wonderfully intelligent GPS? And when it gets huffy with you and keeps telling you to smarten up and listen, could you be so daring as to not follow it's way? And then there's the map...the book that knows the right path and shows you which way to go. (God's Word, of course.) Are you going to pull it out and know what it says, or just trust the GPS? I tell you what...I'm sure glad we had that map in the car with us! If the only thing we had to go on was that GPS, I think we would have come home from Florida via Chicago. Not the right path for our destination. And you know what else? That way home we ended up taking was full of lots of pretty scenery and fun surprises. It wasn't the path we thought we were going to take, but it turned out to be a good one. Just where we were supposed to go. Even though we didn't pull into the driveway until 7:45 PM. (Three LONG hours after we thought we were going to be home.)

So the next time you're on this journey called life, and you're tempted to follow your GPS without first consulting it's intelligence with the Map...don't do it. You might be very disappointed in the path it takes you on. Follow the road less chosen. The narrow road. You won't regret it for a moment.