Just Following…

The Lord watches over the sojourners…Ps.146:9

The packing was finished with the energetic help of a couple from our church.  Don’t know how we’d have gotten off without them!  It all got tucked in a 17ft. moving van with the precision of Tetris experts. The excess spilled over to fill the Previa nearly to the roof and we were off.  My job was to stay awake and to follow Jim.

I rarely drive on trips these days, not like old times when we traversed the continent in our VW van trading off the drivers’ seat so we could maximize the hours when the kids were likeliest to be asleep…

Those were long hauls.  I remember the torture of trying desperately to stay awake.  Now I gladly doze while Jim takes the helm.  But this trip was different.  He had the moving van to manage; I, the laden Previa. 

My job, though dreaded, was easy.  Stay awake and follow.

I had only to keep that bright block of a van in my sights and my foot on the gas pedal… When it got lost from sight I had only to believe that Jim was just ahead, and there he’d be wending his way along while I tucked back in behind.

It’s kind of like that on the journey of life, don’t you find?  We may not exactly know where we’re going or how we’re going to get there but we have only to stay awake and follow.  Our paths have been planned since before the foundation of the world. (Eph.2:10) The good works designed for us to walk in are like the highway miles…We keep our foot on the gas, our eyes open, and we follow alert to brake lights, bumps in the road and turns.  The One ahead knows the way, sets the pace, and plans the stops.  We follow.

I’m spending time with Psalm 25 these days, making its words the prayer of my heart.

Make me know your ways, O LORD teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long. Ps.25:4,5

We can’t see what’s coming down the pike for us these days.  We are in a temporary quarters with a whole lot of life all boxed up and on hold, wondering, waiting, and keeping our eyes fixed on the One who watches over us.

--LS

All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness. Ps.25:10

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God…Ps.146:5