Rerouting...

The reality is, while each of our lives have defining moment, these moments do not define our ultimate end. Often times many of us get caught up in moments and we give these moments permission to become our final stop. If you're a frequent flyer, I'm sure in your traveling experiences there have been times when you've have to settle for flight that require a few pit stops before arriving at your desired destination. For most travelers, this causes a bit of frustration when attempting to quickly reach your destination for numerous reasons, nonetheless, despite all your attempts to find alternate flights, you end up left with the flight with multiple pit stops. Have you ever taken a flight with many stops in between only to discover that once you got to your destination that stop actually because your saving grace and helped you to avoid a tragic event or maybe even gave you some additional sleep time? Sometimes rerouting isn't such a bad idea after all. In fact, what initially caused you frustration actually turned out to work in your favor...This is where the art of waiting takes place...

I recall a time where my son and I were on the road to visit a friend. Because I frequently visited this friend, I knew the quickest route to take to reach my destination to avoid the extra distance and traffic. While waiting at a light, a small quiet voice said "turn"(reroute). I was taken back by these instructions and debated following through because turning at the light would only delay my arrival time. Despite my uncertainty, I complied with the voice, which now I know was God, and I turned at the light. Unfortunately, the car behind me proceeded through the light as I turned only to be hit head on by a car on the opposite side of the road. I immediately slammed on my breaks and looked behind me to see the car now completely crushed. As my heart raced and my young child sat in his car seat screaming, I jumped out my car to aid the victim that had now been trapped inside their vehicle. To make matters worse, the person responsible for the wreck jumped out their car and fled the scene!! Talk about the benefits of rerouting!! I knew in that moment the importance of not only rerouting but heeding to that still small voice. For if I would've proceeded through the light, perhaps I wouldn't have lived to be sharing this story with you all now.

This same lesson applies to life. Perhaps the many moments we must reroute on this journey called life are actually to our benefit and for our betterment. Rerouting, however, requires the mastery of WAITING... I can be honest and say one of my biggest challenges is patience. I am often frustrated and easily escalated when my plans are alter without my permission and or control. While we may view waiting as super frustrating and unnecessary, learning to wait is essential in avoiding the consequences of preventable stress and anxiety. When we are faced with periods or moments of waiting, perhaps it is God's indirect way of telling us to pause and reflect... Wait time provides opportunity for those many "ah ha" moments that we miss when we are rushing or racing through life. In a world that is digitally and technically driven, we've become so accustomed to everything happening at the tap or click of a button that we've forgotten or have yet to learn the importance of waiting.

The most rewarding things that we have achieved or experienced in life did not happen over night. Most, if not all of these accomplishments took a lot of waiting and rerouting. When we become so fixated on our way, we leave no room for God's way. Many of us right now have found ourselves being constantly rerouted and instead of taking the time to wait and reflect, we proceed even after being redirected, the same way... When and if you find yourself being rerouted in life perhaps taking the time to reflect and revamp may help you to avoid the addition of pit stops.  Although pit stops are purposeful, you don't want to find yourself being constantly rerouted due to a lack of waiting and reflecting. So since we are all frequent flyers in this thing called life, we might as well embrace the pit stops because ultimately its all WORTH THE WAIT...