Are we there yet?

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. -Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)

I was stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic the other day on the way home. I don’t know too many people who love traffic, but as believers, we can see God–even in the traffic.

Because God is the ultimate traffic controller for all flows of cars and people and life, He has His reasons for keeping us at a crawl. Maybe there are bad things He’s sparing us from ahead. Maybe He wants us to pay attention more to what’s immediately around us, or even to speak to us through the radio. Maybe there’s someone He wants us to help in the area. Maybe He just wants us to stop thinking and groaning about our priorities, and seek His. We get so lost in busyness that we lose sight of God.

Like impatient kids in the back of a car on a long road trip, we often don’t understand where we’re going or why. We just want to get to the destination. Why the detour? Why the painful, bumpy stretches? Why long, seemingly endless waits and straights?

Our parents, like God, already know where we’re going, and why we’re taking the path we’re on. We can trust in Him that He’s got our backs, and that His plans are to prosper us and not to harm us (Jer. 29:11), and that He will use all things for the good of His children (Rom. 8:28).

Today’s soundtrack

There are many songs that help us trust in His plans for us, but these two speak to me right now:

Steven Curtis Chapman’s “Glorious Unfolding” encourages us to see every step in our journey as the unfolding of God’s amazing plans for us.

Casting Crown’s “Already There” assures us that God, who’s already in our future, has the best in mind for us.