Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Driver's Seat

This should be easy, but no, it’s not. I have no idea what to write let alone where to start, but then again, it is almost always like this, is it not? The ball is in my hands, but before I can do anything with it, anything of worth anyway, I need to pass it on to someone else. Yes, right now I am in the driving seat, but I am hopelessly lost, I can’t see the road I’m supposed to be driving on, can’t see where there might be intersections or stop signs, but someone does, the One who should be driving.

But it is hard you know, to just give over whatever control you might have to someone else, to trust what you know, that He knows what’s best for you even more than you do yourself. Yes, it is easier to leave Him in the co-driver’s seat, you know, the one who looks at the maps ad points out the directions, tells you when you should turn and when you should keep going, tells you when to slow down and when its safe to speed up. But that just isn’t enough. I mean, what if I want to go left and he says go right? What happens if I see a rest stop and He insists on driving past it into what looks like desert to me?

Sure, its easy to say have faith and all, but how easy is it to “have faith” when you can’t see where you’re going? How easy is it to “just have a little faith” when everything just seems to be getting worse with every turn you take under His direction? It’s easier to ask “Am I really hearing right? Surely he cannot mean for me to…” And that is just the beginning. Soon you stop waiting for His suggestions, looking for his guidance; after all you know where you want to go, don’t you? Besides, you are pretty certain you know where you are; the terrain looks familiar, doesn’t it? But do you ever stop to think that you just might be going in circles?

But I guess at this point the co-driver is all but irrelevant, he says go left and I say no, right looks more familiar. When he says be careful, I’m like I’ve done this a thousand times, surely it can’t be any different this time. It only gets easier to block him out, “I’m safe,” I think, “I’m doing the right thing.” I might be safe, I might be obeying all the rules, but I’m not going anywhere, just going round in circles, round and round and round…

And of course, it’s easy to run out of fuel driving like that, then what? Sure, this place is familiar, I know it like the back of my hand, and I know as surely as I can that I have not seen any fuel station in ages. Only then do I remember to look at my co-driver, the one who by now is doing everything to get my attention. And yes, in his infinite mercy he stashed a can of fuel in the boot, enough to get us to the next fuel station and beyond, if I just follow his direction.

Yes, I may not like to go left, but he see farther than I do, maybe just beyond my vision he saw something better for me. So yes, for now I have learnt my lesson, for now I will follow his guidance. Why don’t I let him drive you ask? That would be the best thing to do, wouldn’t it? Yes, that it would, after all, he always knows what’s best for me, always…

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