The Unplanned GPS Route.
Almost your whole route through the city has been filled with green lights. You start to get stoked about being five minutes earlier than normal to your destination. All of sudden, a car pulls into the busy street, right in front of you. Better yet, this car is easily going twenty miles under the speed limit. You think, If I get pulled over for going twenty miles over, surely a cop will see this idiot going twenty miles below. You sincerely think about waving down the cop chilling in the median ahead of you.
You’ve been thinking about this Friday night get-together for days. Honestly, this night out was your only motivation during the work week. As you sift through your clothes, basically trying everything on, you receive a text message from your friend. The text reads, Hey girlfriend. I won’t be able to hang out tonight. I totally forgot that we made plans. I am so sorry. Let’s hang out soon, though! You deflate onto the bed and disappointingly lay on top of your whole wardrobe. You think, Netflix and Chinese take out it is.
My education licensing application could not be complete until I had my suicide prevention certification…which I had lost. Thankfully, the university could print another copy for me, but they could not in any way, shape, or form send me the certification. So, I would have to drive an hour and a half to pick up a piece of paper. I decided that since I would have to make the drive, I would call and make plans with a friend. On the day that I was supposed to go to my college town, I had to cancel because of a family emergency. I was incredibly annoyed that I missed the vital opportunity to retrieve the document I needed and to visit the friend I so badly wanted to see.
A few days later, I decided to make the drive to my college town after student teaching (if you don’t know, that’s a super long drive after a super long day). My only plan was to get the certification I needed and to quickly return back home.
As soon as I got to the parking lot beside the Teacher’s College, a couple shouts, “Hey! We have thirty minutes left on our meter! You can park here if you want!” This parking lot is always a hit or miss. And, I had only fifteen minutes until the office would close.
Consequently, I gave a huge smile of gratitude and pulled into the free parking space.
As I walked through the doors of the Teacher’s College and into the lobby, I spotted my best friend from my department, who I haven’t seen since we began student teaching. I freaked out, gave her a huge hug, and then finally grabbed the certification I needed from the office.
On my way out, I decided to drive to my favorite coffee shop. This girl needed a latte for the long drive home. As I walked through the doors of my favorite coffee shop, I couldn't believe my eyes. Right in front me, almost on her way out, was the friend that I was going to see a couple days ago. If I had been a minute later, I would have missed her.
So…what’s the point?
The point is, that after all of these wonderful events occurred, my GPS calculated my route back home using the longest and most time-consuming roads and interstates. I was going completely out of the way.
The point is that I could have easily freaked over this unplanned GPS route. I could have complained about getting home thirty minutes later. Instead, I thought about how God was not surprised when I ran into all of my favorite people that day.
If I hadn’t had the family emergency, I would not have had those encounters. I would not have seen God’s beautiful orchestration of even the smallest of events in my life.
That day made me wonder: Is there is really a “right” track in our lives? Or is God just waiting for us to recognize how much He adores us and remains present on any route we take?
Sometimes, the unplanned routes are the routes that drive us right back to Him.
words by Kayla Timmons and photo by Megan SauersSaveSave