"Get In the Car"

One memory I have from my childhood is when my dad would tell us to 'get our shoes on and get in the car'. We would immediately start asking where we were going.

And he wouldn't tell us.

At all.

No matter how many times we asked or what we promised to do if he would tell us.

And so we would then start to guess. And his answer was always 'no'.

As a parent now myself I have been guilty of doing the exact same thing to my children.

And they respond the exact same way I used too.

When I don't tell my children where we are going it is because their knowledge of our destination will have no effect on the journey there. Or, they don't yet possess the knowledge to understand where we are going. Does that make sense?

There have been many times in my life, particularly my married life, when God has told me to 'get my shoes on and get in the car'. I immediately start asking where we are going. He usually doesn't answer. (honestly, can't think of ONE time when He has answered me)

So I start bargaining. "You know, God, if you told me I could totally help out and move this along."

Now we know why He doesn't answer.=)

Then I start the guessing game. Maybe it's here, or here. So I google here or here and look at real estate and job ops.

And still no answer.

But this also happens when God tells me to get in the car and it doesn't involve moving physical locations. Like: "Home school your children."

I immediately start the questions. Will I home school all the way through or just for a season? How will this impact my children's futures? Will they have many friends? What will I be at the end of all this?

And you guessed it: No Answer.

And I am finally catching onto why.

Just like me with my kids, God's motivation for not answering is that I wouldn't understand anyway.

Because I might know A way to get to where God tells me we are going, but I don't know THE way He wants to take.

AND because my focus would be on the DESTINATION. I would undoubtedly miss all the pit stops along the way. And if you know anything about racing you know that without the pit stops you don't make it to the end of the race.

My pastor says it like this: Don't live in the future and be unfaithful to the present.

I realized I had lived in the future for most of my life. Always wondering the outcome of something, the purpose of something usually before the something even began.

Always trying to figure God's plan and purpose out. And the more I sought to know, the less that was revealed to me.

Until... I stopped living in the future and started living in the present. And now God can trust me with a little more information because I know that no matter how much I think I know it will NEVER turn out the way I think it will.

So now I am getting better at focusing on God in the present and leaving my future in the future.
Focus on God and you will NEVER miss your future. Focus on your future and you might miss God.

I have my shoes on.

I'm in the car.

And I'm loving the scenery.

Bridget

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9