Recently, I was looking for a little restaurant where I planned to meet a couple of friends for lunch. I knew the general area of where to find this Italian place, so I headed out with no directions… not even a GPS (gasp!). I arrived near the spot where I am pretty sure the restaurant was located. But… It was a different Italian restaurant. Oops. So, I kept driving down the road knowing I was getting closer. Until. I reached a stoplight. In front of me was a bend in the road. I couldn’t see ahead, but I knew I had gone too far. So, I turned around. I drove quite a ways back when I decided I needed to call the restaurant for directions. Take a guess what they had to say. Yep. I had not gone far enough.

I turned around again, and when I got to the bend in the road, I kept going. As soon as I turned the corner, I could see the restaurant clearly. I had wasted time and energy simply because I turned around the first time.

My problem that day was that I assumed I knew what was ahead. Heck, I had even been down that road many times before and knew (ok thought incorrectly) that there was no Italian restaurant farther down the road. But I was wrong.

This scenario led me to a parallel story in my mind. You see, bends in the road are similar to twists and turns in life. We think we know what’s ahead, but we don’t really. Instead of trusting, we become afraid. And we retreat. I don’t like retreating, but I do it anyway.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says this:

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.

Did the light bulb go off? It did for me. I am learning that regardless of what my merely human mind imagines is ahead, I don’t really have a clue. But, God does. He has gone before me. And you. If we let Him take the reins by fully placing our trust in Him, He will make our paths straight.

So, stop worrying about the “Curves Ahead” and know that God will get you through them.  Oh, and bring your GPS next time (said to no one in particular).

 

*This article was originally written/published by the author under the title “Bend in the Road.”