Plan your Journey

  Have you ever been on a journey and wound up in an unexpected place or circumstance? At first you think how did I get here. I am known best for circling a parking lot searching for the perfect spot to park. Just ask my wife and kids how annoyed they get sometimes. One will blurt out just park it.

  We have been to Texas many times for Lacey's surgeries. One particular time a year or so ago we had to drive home to Florida because of Lacey's lungs. It was not safe to fly back home. We left about 5:00PM headed out of San Antonio. The 20 something hour journey had begun. The plan was to drive about three hours to Houston and stop and be close to Texas Children's Hosptial in case we had an emergency. We had directions out of town and we started our journey. After 30 minutes of driving it felt like maybe our journey was headed in the wrong direction so we turned around and headed back to where we just left. Needless to say we spent an hour on a journey to nowhere. We were headed south when we should have been heading east.

   Why did we spend an extra hour on our journey? We didn't have an old school map. The rental van did not have a GPS. We were simply relying on signs, wrong directions and did I mention we called someone that was somewhat familiar with San Antonio and they helped steer us toward our journey in the wrong direction. We got to Houston but an hour later than planned. I simply failed to properly chart our exit out of town. My unpreparedness caused us to be extra tired and roll into Houston later than planned.

   I said all that to say this how many times on my Christian journey have I failed to plan my route with prayer, fasting, guidance from my pastor and mentors. Every time we don't plan our journey or our walk with God we become disoriented and head the wrong way.

  The first step in turning around and heading in the right direction on your journey is to stop for a moment, survey your surroundings and say to yourself I am headed in the wrong direction. Start your journey back as we did in San Antonio and get back to your starting point in your walk with God. Once we got back to town it all came back and we took familiar roads headed this time in the right direction.

  There is no such thing as I can't find my way back. We could have just stopped that night in San Antonio and gave up but we pressed forward. I remember how frustrated we were to know we had driven an hour for naught. God knows exactly where we are and if our journey is headed in the wrong direction. He knows what your frustrations are and how to turn them around.

My prayer is that a back slider realizes that their journey needs to circle back and pick up where they left off and move from their original starting point to a new dimension and direction in Christ.

Thanks for reading and God Bless