Melissa Kitcher was excited to complete her first-ever half-marathon in 2016. She trained. She prepared. She prepped. And then, she got lost.
During the Trail Hog Half-Marathon near Sarasota, Florida, Kitcher went missing for nearly twelve hours after missing some turns and running off the course. She ended up six to seven miles off course with no way to contact anyone or get directions (her phone inconveniently froze two minutes before the start of the race). Kitcher ended up running over 16 miles instead of the 13.1 miles of the race by the time she was found, uninjured but very thirsty.
Have you ever had an experience like that, where you got lost on a hike or missed a turn on your vacation trip and ended up in the wrong city or state? Nowadays, since everyone carrying a smartphone, our GPS is only a tap away, and getting really lost is a thing of the past. Most of the time we don’t even worry about getting directions when we need to go somewhere, we just plug it into our GPS and follow the step-by-step directions to get us to our destination. It makes travel so easy.
Wouldn’t it be great if there were a GPS for our lives?
Wouldn’t it be great if we could get step-by-step directions to help us make all of our big decisions? Answers to questions like, “Where should I go to college? What should I major in? Is he or she ‘the one’?” If someone could invent an app that would lay out a route for our lives, that would become the most downloaded app in history. Having a clear road map to follow would make life a lot easier and get rid of a lot of life’s stresses.
This month at Journey, we’re starting a new series called “Recalculating.” Throughout this series, we’ll talk about how each of us can receive divine direction in 2021 as we navigate the stops and starts and crazy turns of life.
While the Bible doesn’t offer us a simple, neatly packaged answer for navigating life, it does show us that God wants to walk with us and provide us with the direction we need for life’s journey.
Proverbs 16:9 tells us, “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” As humans, we tend to focus on our plans, our hopes, dreams, goals, and aspirations. We want to reach the end of the road and arrive at our destination. But God is more concerned with the steps it takes to get there. Like little kids in the back seat during a road trip, we keep asking, “Are we there yet?”, and God responds, “You are right where I want you to be.” While we focus on the big picture, the Holy Spirit wants to help us take the steps and make the turns that will get us there. We may want to see the whole route, but God wants us to trust Him as He helps us take the next turn.
Imagine that you and I hopped into my car to drive from my house to your house for the very first time. Before we took off, I wouldn’t sit in my driveway and ask you to give me a detailed, turn-by-turn route to your house then try to drive there based on my memory of what you told me. I would just back out and start driving down the street. When we got to the corner, you would tell, me, “Take a right.” At the next intersection, you would tell me to keep going straight or to turn, and so on. Eventually, we would pull into your driveway. I didn’t need to know the entire route to your house ahead of time because you were in the car with me and could tell me where to turn and when we had arrived.
In the same way, God won’t often show us the whole route for our lives. But He will travel with us through life, helping us to find our way step-by-step and turn-by-turn. We just have to be willing to listen to His divine direction. You may be waiting on God to show you the final destination in an area of your life, when He is simply saying, “Take a left at the next corner.”
Melissa Kitcher’s wild adventure in her first half-marathon didn’t discourage her from trying again. When she was interviewed by a local paper about her experience, she already had another upcoming race in mind to try again.
Maybe you have gotten lost at times in your life and felt like giving up. I want to encourage you to try again, to ask God to determine your steps and help you make the next turn. Like Melissa Kitcher, don’t let your past mistakes keep you from pressing on.
I hope you will join us in January for Sunday messages, small group discussions, and individual devotions that will help you learn to listen to God’s divine direction.
Let the journey of 2021 begin!