I had an epiphany yesterday. I had to get to 250 Elm Street in Somerville, MA from my job. Somerville is maybe 10 miles from Boston, but I may well have been going to Mars. I don't know anything about any place in Massachusetts but my own city, so I printed some Google directions. I ran it by my boss since he knows everything about everywhere and told him that if I'm not back in the 12 minutes that the map said I should be back, at least he knew where I was. And I was off. I missed my first turn and had to navigate a U-Turn and proceeded on. My directions were telling me to be on a given street for 2 minutes which was 10 minutes for me; 1.3 miles which turned into 7 miles and so on and so forth. Suffice it to say, I came upon a street that I was familiar enough with to know that I was not where I needed to be. I didn't panic, but an interesting thing happened. I didn't take the first U-Turn and make my way back....rather, I kept going forward. I may have been looking for a gas station but I came upon a red light and the cross street was Broadway. Broadway was one of the streets named on my Google directions!!! So, I turned left onto Broadway. The driver behind my was blowing his horn, so maybe that was an illegal maneuver, but whatever. So, I proceeded down Broadway looking for the next cross street listed on my directions. I came to a rotary without having found my cross street. I saw a big green sign in the rotary pointing to Boston, and I knew that I didn't want to go that way, so I turned right. Still nothing was familiar, but I was on the correct street - College Avenue!!!!! So I took College Avenue and began getting worried. I called my girlfriend who also sits at a desk all day. (Whenever I get lost or need some information, I call her and she will Google or Mapquest it for me.) I called her and while we were small talking, I saw a sign ahead of me that was pointing the way to Elm Street!!!!! At this point, I knew exactly where I was, and was so mad at the stupid directions that I had depended on. I turned onto Elm Street and found a parking spot. I didn't have quarters for the meter, but I had 7 dimes and a nickle and was parked in front of a bank. I went in, got my 3 quarters and was on my way to my appointment.
The epiphany was this: God may take us over the river and through the woods, but He will never leave us. Even if we somehow find ourselves off the beaten path, He will make sure that we will reach our destination - the destination that he has preordained for us. Jeremiah 29: 11 tells us For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (NIV). Who is to say that if I had gotten to 250 Elm Street in 12 minutes I would have had my primo parking spot? What if I needed to get quarters and there was no bank near my new parking spot? Did I mention that it was raining cats and dogs all day yesterday??? So this entire ordeal was compounded by the heavy rains, but God saw fit to get me 2 parking spaces from the front door. Even though I didn't know where I was going for a while, He did. So translate this 30 minute ride into a lifetime. We may stumble and fall, but we always end up where God intends for us to be!!! And we are never alone!!!
And yes, I made it back to work in 12 minutes!!!!