Missing Exits

All the days ordained for me were written in your book

                before one of them came to be.(Psalm 139:16)

     For years before GPSes were available, I told people that I wanted a gizmo for my car that I could give an address, and it would direct me: "Turn right 1 mile...turn right .5 miles...turn right .25 miles...turn right 200 feet....turn right now....you missed the turn dummy!" Unfortunately, now that they exist, I find them less than helpful because...well, if you've used one, you know why. They're probably still better than I am by myself. I've never gone on a tour where all you have to do is show up at the door and follow along. Sometimes I think they'd be very interesting. Sometimes I think they'd be frustrating because I wouldn't care about some of the places we'd go, while I would be very interested in going some of the places we don't go.

     Imagine having a GPS or a tour guide for your life. This Scripture says we have one. Sometimes, we're taken places we don't want to go. We may go miles out of our way to get where we meant to get. We might think we're going to an address that is where we said we wanted to go, but it wasn't really where we wanted to go. We may think we're completely lost, that we have failed completely. Everyone once in a while over the course of quite a few years, I complained to God that I was afraid I was going to miss the exit that would take me where He wanted me to be. One day, He asked me a series of questions. They were all really the same question, "Did you miss the exit  when I took you to __________?" I had to answer "No" each time. Then He said, "So what makes  you think that I'm going to let you miss your next exit?" I don't recall my exact answer, but I'm pretty sure it fit into the general pattern of "Uhhh, well, since You put it that way."

        For many people, I suspect this is one of the texts that leads to questions of predestination and free will. Today, I'd like you to consider something else. When a baby is born, sometimes someone gives the parents a book in which they can keep mementos of that child's first year or first two years. Even without that, we may see pictures or announcements of key events on social media. Rolling over, sitting up, creeping, crawling, walking, eating "real" food, the first word....  These, and many more going on through most of a child's life,  are all ordained things that parents expect. If they don't happen, parents become understandably concerned. My own life is an example of this. I never married, and my father is greatly concerned that when he's gone, there will be no one to take care of me. I'm over 50, and I can take care of myself, but I "missed" that thing that he ordained for me. Consider how the parents feel when they get to write in their book, or post their pictures on Facebook. They're celebrating because that thing that they knew was going to happen happened.

       I believe God feels like this. Yes, He knows everything that is going to happen and how and when it is going to happen, but when it happens, He still rejoices with the good or mourns over the bad just like a parent. So while we may chafe at the notion that God has a book in which our days are ordained, for God it is a book of hope. He does not hope that the things will happen, but He has hope because they will happen just as they're supposed to, just like a child taking a first step.

        

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Birthday of Douglas MacArthur

"The soldier above all other prays for peace for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war."  Douglas MacArthur

"Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory."  Douglas MacArthur