I can remember the days of driving with that giant atlas to find my way around. As time passed that gave way to the seven sheets of printed out papers with turn-by-turn directions in order to navigate to my next destination. The first had the issue of not being able to see all the tiny roads, especially when it was lit only by the interior lights of my car. The second had the issue of wasting so much paper just to print out the first five sheets telling you how to get out of your own neighborhood before giving you the “real” directions. I guess at least the print was larger and gave you the steps to take?

Let’s fast forward to the Garmin. I have a whole story about how I put my trust in that thing, only to be dropped at a dead end and no way out. It was the most scared I’ve ever been while driving. My poor mind was racing on how to get out and at that moment, I was wishing a helicopter could just come take me. I can laugh at that thought now, but I can assure you, I was not laughing then.

Now we have the the good old smart phones.

I miss life when we were all walking around with those silver and black flip phones on our pockets. I’d trade everything to go back to when people looked each other in the eyes again.

Anyway, so here we are. We can take two seconds and punch in an address and not only have a lit up map, we have a voice telling us exactly where to go…exactly where to turn and how to miss any roadblocks.

Am I the only one wishing we could have a GPS system for our lives?

Well, we do in a sense. Whatever your belief, we do. For me, I believe God has this crazy, beautiful plan for us. The catch is that we don’t get the benefit of a map or a physical voice telling us what step to take next.

Sometimes, I feel like I’m honing in on my purpose and I put myself out there. I tell people how I feel about them, I start a new project, I dream the next dream.

When that works out, it’s incredible.

But sometimes, I’m driving along on my path and all of sudden, I feel like I hit standstill traffic or a detour, and all I can feel is everything I thought was right saying, “Rerouting…”

This happens to me a lot after I feel I’ve overshared. It happens every time I hit publish on these blog posts because I am sitting here throwing words out into the universe and never really know if it sounds ridiculous or if it could actually help someone.

We never know until AFTER.

After we let words fall out of our mouths, after we hit send, after we hit publish, after we take that first scary step towards a dream–really put ourselves out there.

At this point in my life, I feel like I have taken a lot of road trips. Some have been amazing. Others had a whole lot of “rerouting” going on. Either way, every time I’ve cringed and hid myself away, I have always found my way back onto the path that was meant for me.

Right now, there’s a lot of construction work going on and I’m trying to navigate that. As much as I wish that GPS voice would tell me which way to turn, I know it won’t. This is just where faith comes into play.

I’ve lived through enough roadwork to know that if I just keep getting into the car and turning the key, I’ll find my way. Am I still scared I’ll end up at those same railroad tracks at that dead end? I sure am. But I don’t see myself leaving the car in the garage either.

~Alisha