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Apr 27, 2024 06:00am

The Scenic Route

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No one likes to wait. Though some people handle waiting better than others, I have yet to meet anyone who prefers it.

Given the choice, many will:

-go on a fast track to graduate early

-work longer hours in less days

-use Google Maps to determine the shortest route to their destination

The list could go on, but the bottom line remains. As a people, we like things that are early, take less time, and are efficient, myself included.

My earliest memory of learning this fact about myself happened when my family took a vacation driving from Missouri to Colorado. It was then that I echoed, over and over again, the classic line, “Are we there yet?” To which my parents responded something about taking the “scenic route.”

I especially remember expressing this particular lament most on the way home from Colorado. Like most people on the way home from vacation, I was exhausted, ready to be in my own house and bed once again.

On our journey back home, my parents decided it would be a good idea to take a detour to New Mexico to visit an aunt of mine. Google Maps tells me that going from CO to my hometown takes a whopping fifteen hours.

Google’s estimated drive time did not take into account stopping to use the restroom and certainly did not take into account a detour to see a long-lost aunt in New Mexico.

As a child, I did not understand why we would travel so much out of our way to see an aunt I had never met. Going the longer route did not make sense.

I’m currently completing a Bible study through the book of Exodus. Last week, the lesson prompted me to trace the route God led the Israelites on as they journeyed out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land (i.e., Canaan).

God led His people on a long and windy path to Cannan over the course of forty years. Yes, you read that right.

After tracing the route, the study pointed out that God clearly had the Israelites take the scenic route; it went on to ask about times in my life when God asked me to take a similar route and asked how a path like this has enriched my faith.

It was then I made a list. Not taking the scenic route would have…

-not required as much faith

-made me less dependent on God

-made me miss out on a sustaining relationship with God

The last realization on that list hit me like a ton of bricks.

More than fast-tracking a trip in the car, on my faith journey, there have been several things I have wanted to change or skip altogether. However, I have realized that skipping these journeys would have made me miss out on the greatest treasure of all: knowing Him.

Knowing that he is able, can, and will sustain me time and time again.

I am reminded of the words of the apostle Paul when he writes, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith…” (Philippians 3:8-9)

Just as the Israelites depended on God to lead them with a cloud by day and fire at night, I have learned I can depend on God to faithfully lead and direct my path as I press in and depend on him to do so.

Perhaps, the greater truth I have learned is that I can depend on him to sustain me emotionally and mentally; I have come to learn that only He sees and has the full ability to meet the needs of my soul.

As a Christian, I do not enjoy having the need to cry out to God and don’t know that I ever will, but I do joy in this: He hears and can meet the needs of my cry in ways that no other human can or ever will be able.

It is through the ache in my soul that no one or thing in the world can satisfy that I have come to know and experience:

-He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother. (Proverbs 18:24)

-His perfect love casts out fear. (1 John 4:18)

-He knows my innermost being and is sufficient to sustain me. (Psalm 139)

We tend to think, even in our faith journey, that the quickest, most painless route is most desirable, but I must disagree.

As an adult, I now know the aunt we visited on our trek back home had cancer and would soon pass away. This was my last and only visit with her. Had we not taken the detour, I would have missed knowing her artistic and fun spirit. I also would have missed seeing a yard made completely out of rocks.

If you’re in a season of waiting today, take heart and press in! Get to know the one who can and will sustain you time and time again.