As I write this, I am sitting in the hospital infusion center, waiting for my immunotherapy infusion. They give me Rituximab every other month for the first three years after my stem cell transplant. It's an easy process. I sit in a chair with a needle in my arm for a few hours, and then I get on with my life. I remember when they gave me the required potential side-effects warnings. This one was different, however.
"You can't father any children."
"Can't or Shall Not?" (My wife-- in her early 50's-- laughed pretty hard at that one.)
Sometimes God takes us on sudden detours. Not long ago, He showed me something interesting. I was riding a motorcycle (don't tell my wife), and I came to a big barricade across the road. That road ended sharply for whatever reason, and was blocked off for my safety. However, there was a big arrow, pointing to the left. It was a detour sign. God was telling me that one of the roads I have been traveling on is ending, and that he is going to be taking me on a detour.
Detours are rarely welcome in our lives, because we like being in control. We like having a plan-- OUR OWN plan. Detours can be so-- so disruptive. They screw with our sense of timing! But as a child of God, I have formally ceded control of my life to His plans and his desires, even when I don't understand them. I have a favorite scripture passage on the subject. It is found in Matthew 16:24-25, quoted from The Message:
Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come after me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how..."
"Not being in the driver's seat" has been a minor theme in God's dealings with me in the past year. Getting diagnosed with incurable cancer 13 months ago and spending half of the year in treatment was definitely not on my personal roadmap. It was a major detour. God also points out to me from time to time that HIS foot is on the accelerator, not mine. Not only does He control the direction, but He can speed things up or slow them down at will. There have been two or three visions where I was in a car and suddenly started accelerating at a crazy speed with the guardrail posts flashing by. HIS foot was on the gas and I was along for the ride. Among other things, He was indicating that He would be accelerating things in my life and at a pace I wasn't comfortable with, but it would be His doing, and that I needed to trust him.
There is a popular Christian cultural saying "Jesus take the wheel!" that has been incorporated into a Carrie Underwood song and a bunch of funny memes. We SAY that, sure... But when God actually starts controlling the direction and pace of our lives, we start to get a little nervous... In my own life, God tends to reply in two ways to my anxious prayers about detours:
"My Grace Is Sufficient" (2 Corinthians 12:9)
and
"Trust My Timing."
Maybe God has YOU on a detour. An unexpected pregnancy perhaps, a job loss, a death in the family, a bad break-up, or maybe a serious long-term illness? Any number of things can stop you in your tracks and force a detour. If this is true, trust that God has his reasons, and just go with it. Release control, and trust Him.
Jesus take the wheel!
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