At a wedding last weekend I showed up 30 minutes late for the rehearsal. Now, I’m not the most punctual person, but when it comes to events that include other people I like to think I’m above average. Needless to say, I was embarrassed. My shame was relieved a little bit, however, when I realized I wasn’t the only person who had a difficult time finding the place. After the rehearsal I sat with the groom’s family as his cousin and grandmother had an exchange I will not soon forget.
Several hours and many miles before the two were loading up vehicles for the trip. The cousin asked his grandmother, “Do you know where you are
headed?” When the grandmother responded that she did not, he took the reins. “Follow me,” he said, “we’ll get there.” For two hours they drove across the southern tier before turning north toward Watkins Glen. As their caravan went through the village and approached their destination, the lead car flew past the turn while the grandmother navigated safely to the house. After making the wrong turn and missing the destination, the cousin arrived more than a bit confused about how his grandmother, who didn’t know where she was going, beat him to the place. He asked, “I thought you said you didn’t know where you were going. How’d you get here?” His grandmother simply responded, “I didn’t know where I was going, but my GPS did.”
So often we journey through life with a “general direction.” We think we know what the future holds. We make our 5-year plans. But like the cousin that general direction all most always includes some missed turns.
- Four years of marine biology turns into six studying sociology.
- Graduating and getting a job becomes moving home and waiting.
- Retirement at 65 didn’t consider a recession.
- You name it.
We map out when we will find love, buy a home, and have our first child, but it’s not as simple as that. Sometimes we miss the turns we were planning on, and sometimes the turns we were looking for aren’t there at all. The truth is grandma is right. We don’t know where we are going. But God does.
Jeremiah 29:11 reads,
“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”
I love the grandmother’s faith. The ability to get in the car and take the journey confident that even though she doesn’t know where she is headed, something does. What if that’s how God calls us to live our lives as well? We don’t know where we are going. Even our best general directions involve missing plans. But God knows the plans he has for us.
Life doesn’t come with a GPS, and it’s certainly not as simple as plugging in a destination. But let us take the journey nonetheless, confident that even when we don’t know where we are going, God does. And where God says we are going is a future of hope.
Hopeful,