Where God wants us (or doesn't!)

I feel very strongly that sometimes God does not want us somewhere and He will do whatever it takes to keep us from getting from Point A to Point B.

Now, I also know that He gives us free will to make decisions and He will allow us to sometimes make the wrong decisions to somehow bring about a greater good at a later time. Any of us can look at our own lives and see examples of situations where we have made decisions, taken actions, or said things that were wrong for us or bad, but as smoke clears and time passes we see how we may have been able to grow or change from the “wrong” decision.

But other times, God will do whatever He needs to do to keep you from a situation He doesn’t want you in. A case in point for me was last night, I think. A friend of mine had invited me to an event up in the Howell/Lakewood area. It’s about 45-50 minutes from where I live on a good day. I wanted to show support for this event and I hadn’t seen this friend or many of the others who may have been there in a long time.

It’s important to note I have been to Howell/Lakewood dozens if not hundreds of times in my life for various events. I have driven past the location where this event was going to be held and thought I knew the stretch of Route 9 where the place was located.

Can I tell you I drove up and down a many-mile-long stretch of Route 9 three times looking for the place and never found it? I text-messaged the event organizer to try to get a landmark, but the event already started, so heard nothing in reply.

Then I thought that maybe I simply wasn’t supposed to be there that day. It was now dark, the event had been going on for 45 minutes, and would it even have been worth it to find the place at that point? I just felt like I was being led away from the place and back toward home. Then I saw a sign for Route 70, which I can take right back to near my neck of the woods. That’s exactly what I did. Driving home I thought about it. Maybe there would have been someone there I didn’t want to see. Maybe I would have felt out of place or uncomfortable.

Who knows? God knows. I wasn’t mad driving home. I wasn’t annoyed that I “wasted” gas and had spent over 2.5 hours in my car for “nothing.” I just trusted God enough to lead me home.