When I begin to rely on unreliable things…
I can’t believe it is the last day of July.
Like you all, I am feeling the upcoming shift to the next season even as we continue to enjoy garden tomatoes and watermelon and as many of the summer things as we can before our little guys head back to a new year of school.
Last week I was heading out to meet up with Rachel en route to Springfield. The plan was to rendezvous in some parking lot of a small town along the interstate at a location yet to be determined as we got closer to each other.
As I pulled out of our driveway with my phone attempting to pull up the map for my route, the screen went black.
I plugged it into the charger but the screen remained black and any attempts to restart my phone were met with a white screen featuring a stubborn Apple symbol or more black.
As I had a minor freaking out thinking I now had no way to contact her until I could find a phone to use and while I actually knew the way to get to this town, my complete lack of confidence in my ability to remember directions to places overtook my good sense and I headed off on roads that added miles to my driving.
I knew in my head before I left the house which way I should go but in my angst over my dead phone and a road trip ahead of me, I lost my senses.
Good news is my phone did eventually right itself and I was able to communicate with her, but as I drove along, a truth came over me about what had happened.
Let me repeat.
I KNEW how to get where I was going, but I wanted the confirmation of my phone to back up my knowledge.
When the phone blacked out, I panicked and that panic trumped what I knew to be true.
If I would have stopped and thought about what I KNOW…I would not have added extra and unnecessary mileage to my journey.
What a great reminder to me in a day and age where a sudden burst of chaos can throw me into panic mode and I begin to let that panic fuel me instead of truth.
News from a text, a blurb overheard from some news report, a conversation I am privy to as I wait in line at a store…these circumstances can throw me into emotional black out and cause me to panic and forget what I know to be true.
When that happens, as a person of FAITH in following Christ, it is so important to stop myself from blindly heading out as I flounder for back up…and just walk forward in what I know to be true.
Walking by faith means I don’t go by what I can see, feel, touch but living each day guided by what I know that I know to be true.
I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16