Now that my kids are young adults, even though they don’t have the years of experience in driving that I do nor the “good driving” record, I love having them chauffeur me around. Yep, I kind of like being able to have that responsibility off my shoulders. :o) Haha! They drive because they think I’m a terrible driver. I often wonder what their definition of a good driver is???
Sometimes, I think they believe me to be a bad driver because I really try not to speed. I usually leave for wherever I am headed in plenty of time to get there. I don’t want to zip around slow drivers all the time or feel like I am in a competition to arrive at my destination first. Funny, when I am driving, if I glance at my phone to even see who is calling, they quickly look at me and say, “Eyes on the road!” Funny how they do the exact same thing when they are driving, glancing at their phone or music!
To this day I am not sure why they think they are better drivers than me. In my mind I have just decided to “agree to disagree with them!” In fact, I use it to my advantage. I just walk to the passenger side going on the assumption that they are driving! I have been driving for so many years that I LOVE….LOVE…LOVE…not driving when I don’t have to:))) That hasn’t happened on the “cooking thing yet!” No one is telling me to get out of the kitchen. No one has grabbed the apron or spatula out of my hand…like they have the keys. Go figure?????
LOL…Sorry to ramble. Point of post…being chauffeured, with both Collins and Thomas home right now, I get to ride shotgun a lot. I relate it to God being the chauffeur in my life. I love to sit back and “ride,” be the “passenger,” and allow someone else to navigate for me. Having Collins be the one to weave in and out of traffic to unknown destinations has actually been relaxing, especially on our recent trip to Washington, D.C.
She did it with skill and the confidence of “siri” telling her where to turn and how much further she had to go. It was GREAT just being along for the ride. When Thomas was driving recently, I even took a short nap in the car and I never take a nap during the day. It was quite enjoyable. I could relax because someone else was “taking me to my destination” and I trusted him to get me there!
In life …God desperately wants to be the chauffeur and navigator of our lives. He is the expert. He invented all destinations. He even orchestrates roadblocks to make sure we get all that He wants us to get…by slowing us down…redirecting us at times…teaching us patience…..having us take detours.
Recently I took a detour with Bill while he was driving from Clemson to Columbia on backroads in order to avoid heavy traffic. The scenery was magnificent–tall cornfields, a red barn with cows, horses grazing in the pastures. I even saw a momma yellow lab with ten puppies running after her. You get it. We were not on the interstate…boring!
It was a real picture to me….of…life. I am so used to driving on interstates to get to my destinations (my routine)…where the scenery is not so good…static…nothing special…mundane…is a good word. The detour took us longer to get to where we were going but as a passenger I experienced some really special things.
So….it is with God as the navigator. Often times we, with our mouths, say…God is the chauffeur when in reality, we are! We think we trust Him but when a detour, a stall, comes in our roadway of life, we question the “Driver”. We question the Navigator.
We find it hard to believe that maybe the “detour” is a great thing. Maybe, if not for the detour, we would miss something extremely important that God has for us. Sometimes it is a test by God…similar to Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac, a test of his faith and trust. Do we really have the faith we say we have? Do we trust HIM in ALL things? Or are we the “backseat” driver telling God how to drive our lives and manipulating His directions?
There is one thing I know for sure in life…there will be detours…there will be roadblocks….there will be “mundane driving” at times…but when you are fully surrendered to Christ and His perfect design for your life, it is easier to trust the Navigator. His Map is perfect, detours and all, not my map nor yours.
A true trusting of God as your Chauffeur means you know that you know that no matter what lies ahead, HE HAS YOU. That HE will make the right turns. Many times in my life, now looking back in the rearview mirror, if I found myself on a strange road, it was not God who took me there but was my own doing.
My not trusting. My not seeking. My not being patient in the “traffic jams” of life so I took a wrong turn. A lack of trust. Or impatience. Or allowing someone else’s voice to be louder than His navigation. The list could go on and on. I can now see several times when the roadblocks were put there by God to redirect, teach, or discipline me. :o)
At 53 it is easier for me to see the roadblocks, stalls and redirection that happens in our kids’ lives as being God’s hand in their lives. It is His direction or redirection and training highways for life. I so encourage them now to enjoy ALL that God wants them to see in the roadblock or detour. :o) And to examine where the detour came from–who put it there? Was it God or did wrong decisions or a lack of not paying attention put them there?
Today I want to you encourage you to examine the highway of your life, where you are right now. You may need to look in the rearview mirror. You may need to look at what is right in front of you and get very honest with yourself and God about who is actually making the turns and the decisions……???
Scripture would call it looking at your fruit–are you producing good fruit? From my own experience I know that sometimes it takes a slowing down or coming to a complete stop. Pulling over on the road of your life in order to take a long hard look at the direction you are headed in, or even more, to look at who is doing the navigating or driving.
A great way to discern this is to look at the “fruit” in your life???? John 15:14-16, “You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”
From this scripture we understand that we can know our master’s business. We are not slaves. We are friends who have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit. But it is clear, we have to do it His way a.k.a. let Him be the Chauffeur of our lives. And as for judging your fruit, it is referring to eternal fruit.
So to sum it up: if you choose to pull over on the “road of your life” and examine where you have been and where you are headed….a sure fire way to know about the proper navigation is to examine the “eternal fruit” that God is producing in and through your life. That is the quickest way and the most revealing way of knowing if God is actually the one that is doing the driving.
I don’t know about you…but when I am driving, I do not like a backseat driver. And the last time I checked, no one in my family does either. Can you imagine what God thinks when we try to tell Him how to drive our lives? We are all called to produce eternal fruit. Check your life today and see who is behind the wheel.
Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”