Spiritual Lessons on the Road

I was recently driving back to Philly from NJ. I traveled a different route home because I started out from a different location. My mapquest directions and I began the journey. Early on I was quite familiar with the roads. Once I got past a certain point I was in unexplored territory as far as I was concerned. It was a very pretty drive over a lot of farm land (yes, NJ has farmland) and some of the leaves were beginning to change colors.

I reached a certain point in my journey where the road changes names but the route number stays the same. I went through a toll booth, found the route number I needed and continued driving. Several hundred feet later I had a brief moment of panic. I hadn’t yet seen a sign confirming I was in fact on the correct numbered road. The new street name was not mentioned in my directions (that became a distraction). I’m in the middle of literally God only knows where. Uh-oh.

I had a spiritual lesson or moment then. I knew that I was on the right road but for some reason I got a small sense of panic and when I let it in, it grew. I knew I was on the right road, but I wanted to see the route number sign so that I could have it confirmed. Isn’t that like our life journey though? We know we are on the right road, the right journey toward God; but sometimes we just want or we just need to be reminded and encouraged. We need to have our journey road confirmed in some way.

I think we all need to be encouraged along our journey. A little while later I saw that number that I needed; the number that assured me that I was in fact on the correct road and there was no need to panic.

I pray we all have someone or someones in our life who can encourage us along the way and let us know that we are in fact on the right road. I also pray that our eyes are open for those people and for those signs. I’d hate for us to miss them because we are too busy being distracted.