Recalculating

For the past several years, we've taken a new friend along on our road trips. "She" first made an appearance as we moved our daughter to Nashville, TN, for a dietetics internship at Vanderbilt. She ably led us in unfamiliar territory - up, over and around complicated cloverleaf highway patterns and down unfamiliar city streets. It was a handy device for Kansans much more accustomed to dirt roads and small towns.

Jill will admit she's directionally challenged. We had always intended to leave the Garmin with her when we left for home. But before we departed Nashville, we stopped at an electronics store and bought our very own dashboard companion for the trip back home. 

She's been a good traveler as we've explored other destinations since then, including moving our son to Columbia, S.C., for his master's degree program. She's gone with us to Oklahoma City. She's taken us to Idaho and Salt Lake City and Yellowstone, among other destinations.

She even took us to the hospital where we first met our new granddaughter last December. We didn't want any detours on that important trip!

Randy loves maps. He could ponder a map with the same enthusiasm as I do cookbooks. And he stills likes to look at maps, but this handy, dandy traveling companion has definitely helped our marital accord during big-city expeditions.

You punch in a destination, and she sagely proclaims, "Drive to highlighted route."

If we mistakenly miss an exit that she's advised we take, she calmly says, "Recalculating." It may not be the way she originally intended for us to go, but she's going to give us the best alternate route.

John 14: 1-6:
1″Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.” 5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  (Emphasis added by me.)

I don't always go in the right direction.  I don't always make the right choices. But God is always there to calmly say, "Recalculating." He gets me back on path, no matter how many mistakes I make and how far off the road I drift. 

Every time we turn on the Garmin these days, it reminds us that our maps are out of date. We should go online and update the maps so it can provide the most accurate routes toward our destination.

Without accurate information, we could end up at the wrong place.

And isn't that true of life, too? If we don't open the "road map" for our Christian lives - the Bible - we may find ourselves wandering down roads God never intended. And I need to listen for that still, small voice that tells me I need to be "recalculating."

I need to trust God's Word and the Holy Spirit to get me to the destiny that God has designed for me.

Most of the time, when I'm following the directions of Garmin, I have no idea where I'm at, but I have to trust that it knows. When I'm following God, there may be times when nothing looks familiar. Sometimes He leads me into green pastures and beside still waters.  Sometimes He leads me through the valley of the shadow of death.  But regardless of where He leads me, I have to trust Him to get me to my ultimate destination - a place in my Father's house.

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Lovely Branches' theme for the month is "travel." I know many non-farm people equate June with travel or vacations. But most of the traveling I'll be doing early this month will be related to wheat harvest. It may be driving the wheat truck to the co-op. It may be making runs to the parts counter to get repairs for machinery. It will definitely include trips to the field to deliver harvest meals where the car trunk becomes a dining room table.

Whether you're in the midst of harvest or heading to a summer ballgame, it's always handy to have tried and true meals for your family.

Try Ham and Cheese to Go, a twist on an old classic.

Or make a semi-homemade version of pizza pockets. It's another quick and easy meal for your arsenal.

Enjoy your June - whether hard at work or on vacation!