I’m going to embarrass myself here.
This real life example may or may not tell you what kind of personality I have. My first time driving home alone from college, I turned the four hour journey into a seven hour one. I was in my happy place: on the road to somewhere and singing along to my current favorite music. After four hours, however, instead of turning into my parents’ driveway, I was pulled over next to a payphone (obviously in a historical period before Google Maps could've helpfully interrupted my music and told me to merge onto the correct interstate). The sheepish phone call home went something like this:
“Hey Dad! So hey, um, everything’s fine, but I forgot to turn and kept going straight and now I’m close to Chicago.”
“How close are you?”
“I can see the skyline.”
“Ok. Get some caffeine, make sure you head west on I-88. It’s a straight shot. Call me again if you have any trouble.”
After that incident, I started taking plenty of road trips, both alone and with friends and fared fine. But having this kind of attitude in real life won’t always result in fine. It can result in missed opportunities, lost time, slow growth, even some painful consequences.
Being anxious is one thing, but going along, assuming the road will carry you where you need to go - that of course you’ll make the turn automatically when the time comes! - may result in a longer journey there. You may end up going somewhere along the way you’d prefer not to go.
1 Peter 5:8 tells us to “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
For someone who struggles with absent mindedness, (becoming a parent helped a whole lot with this!) the verse above is a good reminder. In my experience, sometimes it won’t look like a whole lotta hardships, it’ll be a whole lotta distractions. And you’ll find yourself wishing the journey to who you are today hadn’t taken so long.
