Over fall break, I ventured to Ohio with my best friend Genelle and her mom.  It was a nine hour trip and we got there in about ten hours – we had to pee a lot. It was the coming back home that was the issue. Our fun nine hour road trip turned into thirteen very long hours.  Once I got home I reflected on my time in the back seat of the Honda and realized there were some pretty cool things to take away from it.

• On the way home we decided to avoid toll roads and drive through all the small cities, unknowingly adding hours to our journey, but we did make it home. Eventually. Lesson to be learned? You will get where you need to go, maybe not when you planned to or necessarily wanted to, but you will get there (and be oh, so thankful when you do).

• I was reading in the backseat and at one point heard a conversation from the front seats that went something along the lines of this: “We’re going the right way.”  “I thought we were supposed to be going North.”  “I know. We’re going the right way.”  “Check the GPS.”  “Oh, we’re going South…” Lesson to be learned? Always rely on your Navigation System instead of your own instinct – I’m referring to God here.  This is not always the case when we’re talking about a literal GPS, which sometimes tries to convince you to drive off of a cliff. In this case I think your following your own instinct would be better for your health.

• When you’re already hours behind schedule you don’t want to do anything that is going to add precious minutes until the time you get home, but sometimes stopping is necessary.  It’s good to get out of the car and stretch and remember what standing feels like – even if it’s going to add fifteen minutes to your ETA. Lesson to be learned? We don’t always need to be in such a hurry.  We need time to rest and breathe.  God will get us where we need to be.

• When you’ve guzzled a Coke and a bottle of water and you haven’t stopped to pee in hours, you do what you have to do, even if it means squeezing into a tiny, smelly, gas station bathroom because if you wait much longer there’s a good chance you’re going to pee in the car.  Lesson to be learned? Sometimes you have to endure unpleasant situations to get to your end goal, but it’s worth it.

• The sun was starting to go down and I couldn’t read anymore so I started playing on my phone.  I was only on my phone for about three or four minutes, but when I looked up I said, “Dang, it got dark fast!” Lesson to be learned? Sometimes we become so focused on something (or distracted by something) that we fail to see how God is working in our lives.

• There came a point in which we should have been home hours ago and Genelle and I were getting very impatient and were yelling dramatically about how we were hot and tired and wanted to be home. But no amount of dramatic yelling made the car teleport home – though if that were possible, we would have been home very quickly. It was amusing, however, and you have to find humor in situations or you’ll go insane. Lesson to be learned? Worrying and fretting helps nothing.  Sometimes you just have trust God and roll with things, and you might as well make it fun while you’re at it.

The trip was long and frustrating but also amusing and adventurous.  Sounds a bit like life, ey? Through the trip God revealed some pretty cool spiritual applications to me that I may not have realized in a different context.  The main thing to be learned from this?  Look for God’s hand in every situation, He’s there, it just may take a little bit of reflection to realize it.

Until next time, lovelies.