‘Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him’…  Psalm 37

Ann and I spent a leisurely vacation last week filled with hiking Old Baldy, card sharking, and searching for buried pirate treasure with our niece and nephew (got fun pics if you want them). Our trip to Watervale is something that we find ourselves looking forward to now every summer.  There’s something that melts the stress and weariness of the daily grind when you drive over a crest on M22 and see shimmering Lake Michigan and Watervale spread out like a strand of pearls along the beach.  It was the getting there this year that was stressful and grinding on my ever patient demeanor behind the wheel.  ;-)

We’ve traveled back and forth to Watervale for a handful of summers now, so I know the route well enough.  Just to be safe I googled a map and directions and tossed them in the console.  Should have packed an atlas.  Whoever said that it’s not the destination but the journey that’s important hasn’t tried to navigate I 75 in Michigan lately.  We were detoured off of detours off of detours.  Really.  Bumper to bumper traffic in one lane.  The first detour took us through downtown Baghdad—er, I mean Detroit, right past the Greyhound Bus station and boarded up Tiger Stadium.  Semi’s, RV’s, SUV’s and Greyhound Buses snaking through the bowels of the city—and that was just the beginning of the trip. Begin the Twilight Zone theme.

I think most women have learned that men are never lost - or so men think. Some guy's driving from Chicago to LA and his wife asks, "Honey, why did we just enter Pennsylvania?" Is he lost? No, he's exploring a new scenic route.  I think that’s what the tourism department of Michigan is up to.  “Let’s tear up the interstate and let visitor’s tour the state on the back roads!”  After the fifth detour we pulled off the highway and picked up an honest to goodness authentic map of Michigan. The detours had turned a six hour trip into nearly seven and a half. 

The great thing is that I learned something new about Ann after 27 years of marriage—she’s great with a map! She was good at evaluating our options and picking the roads that got us there the fastest. So, for the rest of the trip, while I was driving Ann was with the map in her lap, telling me the road or exit to keep us on the right track. I didn't need to see the map, I had a great navigator!

Psalm 37:3-5 gives some wonderful advice for the choices and challenges that you may have ahead of you right now—maybe for a road that is pretty new to you. You've got questions about what to do, where to go, when, how. Well, listen to God's words, "Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this."

As you look at what's ahead, you wish you had a detailed map. You don't. And even if you do, it is subject to all kinds of variables beyond your control. There's nothing in these verses about trusting in the plan, in the map. You don't have a map, but you do have a navigator. And He has the map. Just like us on a trip in the back roads of Michigan. I don't have to see the map. I just need to trust the navigator—to pay attention to the Navigator.

Our job as Jesus' followers: trust in the Lord, delight yourself in the Lord and commit your way to the Lord. Just as I asked Ann, "What's next?" You and I just stay close to our Lord and say, "What's next, Lord? Where's the next step?" Ann didn't tell me the next five turns we were going to need to take; all I really needed was to know the next step. That's how your divine Navigator wants to take you through this next phase of the journey, showing you one next step or one turn at a time.

In changing seasons or uncertain seasons, we tend to focus on God's will—that  perfect, cosmic plan that seems like such a massive mystery. But the focus isn't supposed to be on the plan, but on the Planner—not on the map, but the Navigator. It's easy for God to show you what He wants you to do; it's hard to get you to do what He wants. So these times of choice and challenge are designed to draw you deeper into Him, to motivate you to spend greater amounts of time in God's Word and in God's presence, to get you to release your schemes and dreams so He can lead you into His plans, to sensitize you to recognize and obey those promptings of His Holy Spirit.

Maybe you're on some bumpy road right now and traffic is backed up because you started following detours and distractions. The map is God's business, so don't worry about it. Your job is to listen very carefully to the Lord—the Navigator. He'll show you the road you were made for, one turn at a time.

Suffice to say, we took a different route home from Watervale this summer, one that was stress free and we thanked the Navigator.

Art