The Journey

We went to Lincoln again last night, to accomplish the errand that didn't work out on Thursday.  It was another good trip (Culver's for supper; it was like being back in Wisconsin!).  It was also another beautiful evening.  I drove home since Hubby was tired.  The Nebraska landscape is SO beautiful; I wish I'd had my camera with me.  The sun was beginning its descent toward the western horizon, straight ahead of us.  Cotton-ball-clouds were scattered in the smooth blue sky.  On each side of the highway were fields, green with corn and beans and grass.  Cattle grazed or cooled off in a muddy puddle.  Wildflowers bordered the highway on either side, filling the ditches.  The radio was playing and Hubby and I sang along, alternating between the Christian and country stations, a breeze in our faces.  It was a perfect drive.

And it got me to thinking, how life is great like that sometimes.  Driving along, happy, the sun in my eyes and wind in my hair.  But sometimes life isn't so good, like when I went to get Hubby from the airport in Wisconsin before the wedding.   It was rainy, cloudy, and foggy--I couldn't see far past the car.  My hands gripped the steering wheel, white-knuckled.  I was praying the whole way, alone in the car.  On the way home, with (then-future) Hubby in the passenger beside me, it wasn't so bad.  I was in control of the car, I had an encourager, and I wasn't alone.

But how much better might both drives have been if I wasn't in the passenger seat?  I wouldn't be in control then, of course (as much as I try to be; I'm a terrible passenger-seat-driver).  I wouldn't decide where we were going.  I would just sit back, enjoy the ride, not worry about the mechanics of driving, and trust myself into the care of the driver.  Even in foggy or rainy weather, it wouldn't be so scary if I wasn't behind the wheel.  The driver would be in control, taking care of me.  I would have no need to worry.

Sometimes my journey through life is like that: I try to be in control, and sometimes it works out well, and sometimes (usually) it doesn't.  When I take control of my life, getting in the driver's seat, I'm the one who has to think about where to go, worry about other drivers, follow signs and directions, and keep control of the car.  When I let God get behind the wheel, all those worries are His, and not mine.  I can trust Him and say, "I don't know exactly where I'm going, but that's ok, because You do.  I don't know how I'm going to get there, but You wrote the roadmap, not me.  I don't know what obstacles are going to get in my way, but You do, and You'll get me safely through them.  All I have to do is trust You--and enjoy the ride."

Handing over control like that is kind of scary sometimes.  We as humans want to keep a tight grip on our lives, control our futures, decide where our life will lead us.  But a lot of the time we get confused because we don't know where we're going.  It's just so much easier to let God take control, because that's the way it should be.

I think I'd rather let God be the driver of my life.  He is God, after all.