Recalculating

     Our poor GPS lady is constantly recalculating our route.  Recently my family headed to Virginia Beach.  Since we have lived in the Chattanooga area our entire lives, we know that we need to head toward Knoxville to begin our journey.  From there we would need help from GPS lady.  The machine doesn't know that we know how to get going in the general direction of our destination.  So, we just turned her off until we got closer to Knoxville. 
     Once we got to Knoxville we turned the machine on so we would know where to go after we got north of the city.  Then we had to stop for gas...  Recalculating.  Recalculating.  Turn, turn, turn!  Go back!  You're going the wrong way!! Even though her voice is always the same, calm and level, MY frustration grows and grows the more she recaluclates and gives directions.  After all, we are just going to the bottom of the exit ramp to get gas and then we will get right back on the interstate.  Simple enough for us, right?  But the lady in the box has a job to do - to get us where we told her we wanted to go.
     At one point on this trip we just cracked up as the machine said, "Turn right, turn right, turn right!"  You know how usually there is a little pause between instructions?  Not this time.  She meant for us to turn and turn now!
     Then I started thinking about my walk with the Lord.  My God has plans for my life.  He knows where I am headed, and He graciously guides my way. I sometimes get off the path and head toward what I think is a greener pasture.  When I do, He gently nudges me.  "Turn, Vicki."  "That's the wrong way."  But, I don't always respond to his guidance.  Sometimes I have to just see what is going to happen or how far I can go before I come running desperately back. 
     "I know the plans I have for you."  The words of God to Jeremiah.  The words of God to you and me.  My Bible puts it this way, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you (insert your name here), says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."  Did you ever play the game with a daisy...he loves me, he loves me not?  Well, here it is!  He loves me!  God thinks about me.  He wants to give me a future and a hope.  It's enough to make a girl shout for joy!!
     God has a plan for my life.  For the sake of this entry let's say He has me programmed into his GPS (Godly Positioned Security), and if I follow, he will get me to the future he has planned for me.  I have to wonder, though, how many times he has said, "Recalculating.  Recalculating. Turn here.  Don't go that way."  I can hear him pleading, "Vicki, please don't go that way.  I have a better route planned for you.  It will get you to the life I have planned for you.  Won't you take this road and avoid the detours that are full of wasted time and unnecessary heartache?"
     Like I said before, sometimes I have to see how far I can go before I get desperate and come running back to the One and Only who loves me so much.  I have wasted a lot of time trying to make my own way.  I have endured a ton of heartache that I might have avoided if I had followed the road he had originally calculated for me.  
    Throughout the Bible we see a picture of God as a shepherd.  A shepherd who leads his flock to the safest and greenest pastures, always seeking the cool refreshing water for his beloved sheep.  Psalm 23 draws such a beautiful picture for us.  Here is how the Amplified Bible puts it:
     The Lord is my Shepherd to feed, guide, and shield me, I shall not lack.  He makes me lie down in fresh, tender green pastures; He leads me beside the still and restful waters. He refreshes and restores my life, my self; He leads me in the paths of righteousness, uprightness and right standing with Him -- not for my earning it, but for His name's sake.  Yes, though I walk through the deep, sunless valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for You are with me; Your rod (to protect) and Your staff (to guide), they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  You anoint my head wtih oil; my brimming cup runs over.  Surely or only goodness, mercy, and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, and through the length of my days the house of the Lord and His presence shall be my dwelling place.
     Frankly, my friends, that's the journey I want to take.  One programmed into God's GPS with my gentle, loving, strong, protective shepherd beside me the entire way.  Heaven is my final destination because of the blood of Jesus.  I am going to take the scenic route beside the still waters and down the paths of righteousness until I reach the end of this journey.  What about you?
Vicki