Drive Sense

How did everyone’s 4^th of July go yesterday?  I had a great time with family that started in the late afternoon and ended early this morning!  I mean wow… I hadn’t been up that late since Piper was taken by ambulance to the hospital a few years back and went a day or more without any sleep.  But this time was a little different… this time was fun and relaxed!

I was standing on the bank of a small neighborhood pond around 7:30 pm, with a fishing poll in my hand thinking that this was the first time that I went fishing since around 2000.  I also came to the realization that it was the first time that I have relaxed for an entire day since… well, probably 2005 when Piper and I went trailering for a week up in the high Sierras on our 30^th wedding anniversary.  This definitely is a NEW life that I am living.  One that I have to deliberately set my mind to slow down and smell the roses in!

After enjoying fireworks, while dinner preparations were being concluded late last night, my youngest daughter was commenting about Piper’s and my decision to follow what we believed was the Lord’s clear directions to us to attend Rhema Bible College here in Broken Arrow beginning in 2006.  She told of how her husband and her were recently discussing that if we hadn’t come, that they would have never connected and little Sarah Piper might not have come into this world.  Looking back now, I can see how there were many different parts to the greater puzzle that we had no idea of when we followed that call.

When I switched over my Esurance auto policy from North Carolina to Oklahoma a few days ago, I signed up for their driving app called “Drive Sense” that tracks your daily driving trips and measures your driving abilities, gives safe driving suggestions and can lead to monthly rate discounts.  It also gives you the ability to go back and look at your driving history.  The app is a lot like looking back into one’s Christian history to see just how they have been “driving” on the road of life.

I got to thinking about this some more when I recently read from John 16:33 where Jesus tells us, “I've told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I've conquered the world." (The Message) 

His frankness in blatantly declaring that in our daily lives we could be assured of experiencing difficulties, or “tribulations” as the King James puts it, triggered this line of thought in me.  He makes it pretty obvious for us to see the dilemma and at the same time, understand the solution… before the difficulties… that we know will eventually show up... come upon us.

To me this is a call to prepare oneself!  It’s like having an emergency plan for your home or business that you automatically follow when a situation happens.  I can remember the regular emergency evacuation drills that we had in school as well as at Hewlett Packard when I worked there.  While in NC and definitely out here, I put together an emergency pack and came up with a safety plan for Piper and I and the dog, whenever a hurricane or tornado warning was sounded.

So, wouldn’t it make sense to do the same for the emergency or difficult situations that arise in our daily lives that threaten our health, our finances, our relationships or any other area of our lives?  Just like looking at the car insurance app to see how I did in the past, I’ve found myself looking at Piper’s and my past to see how we did throughout the years.  Have you ever done that?  Similar to the conversation with JoAnna last night, when I look back over time, I can see just how we prepared for our future… and maybe more importantly, just how God had a plan for us to follow so that our future would turn out according to His directions and purposes.

I began to make a list a few days ago of the many things He did for us, personal characteristics He developed in us and events that He had us to experience in order to prepare us for our future… and in particular our stand of faith during Piper’s health battle that really came to the forefront in 2007.  It is uncanny to me to see how He masterfully orchestrated and directed all the various parts of the play of our lives in order to help us to “be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace” when it seemed that all hell was breaking out around us.

So yeah… He’s got a plan and a purpose for each of us… and He has given us the hints as well as the tools within His Word, to prepare and then pursue that plan and purpose before, during and after the emergency situations that arise in each of our daily lives.

So… go ahead and download your “Spiritual Sense” app and begin to review your past and then move on into your present and future with the suggestions, guidance and strength that He has just for you!

Have a great 4^th of July weekend, and as you do, say with me… “I am expecting to seek out and then follow the guidance that God has for me and my life… each and every day!”