You’re driving down the road a few miles over the speed limit.  Your suddenly realize that you can’t afford another speeding ticket which causes you to ease your foot off the accelerator just a bit.  Now that you’ve slowed your speed, the traffic light at the next intersection turns yellow, making you wish you had chanced that speeding ticket.  After all you’re running a little late for an appointment. There you sit nonetheless, thinking about the time you’re wasting, and within a few seconds someone you haven’t seen in 5 years pulls up next to you.  Knowing this encounter has been pre-arranged, both of you pull over at the next possible place, thereby rekindling a relationship that shouldn’t have remained dormant for so long.

Has this (with the exception of the fear of a speeding ticket I hope), or something like that ever happened to you?  Does life seem to break into our busy pre-planned schedules when we least expect it?  Some may call it fate or destiny, but I would rather consider it providence.  Other wise known as the hand of God directing matters on our behalf.

God states in the book of Isaiah, “From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.  What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do” (46:11).  In other words, don’t think for one minute you’re running the show.  Not now.  Not ever.

God determined our lives before the day timer was ever invented.  He arranged circumstances, assignments, encounters, etc. long before our conception.  And while it is true He does not preordain our responses, lest He rob us of His gift of free will, He remains ever vigilant in bringing about all that He sets His mind and heart upon.

The challenge for us as followers of God is to learn how to follow.  To learn when and how God is directing our steps.  To succumb to the fact that His road is the best upon which to ride.  To understand that no matter how much we may think we are steering our lives, in the end we will travel His road either way. 

It would be wise of us to take our foot off the gas so as not to miss the next turn.  We’ll just be taking the long way around to the destination we would land upon anyway.  Just a little less tired and worn from the ride.