What Has Been Prepared

This post comes straight to you from the front seat of our loaded down SUV. I am looking out at the hilly treetops of Kentucky. I am listening to the sounds coming from our children in the backseats. At this particular moment, it is as you’d expect: 

“Mom, her hair is touching me! She keeps doing it!”

“I’m not touching her!”

“Keep your blanket on your side of the seat!”

“Where are we going?”

“How much longer until we get there?”

“What are we doing tomorrow?”
“Can you plug in my phone?”

Sweet, sweet sounds coming from the children.

But there’s more to this story.

This road trip started taking shape months ago. Hubby and I decided where we wanted to go, when we would go, and we started making our arrangements. We booked places to stay, we planned out what we would do, and we figured out how we would get there.

Yesterday, we spent a total of 15 hours driving before we made it to the hotel we had reserved back in March. We were confident when we left home yesterday morning that we would have a place to lay our heads when it was time. When the kids got cranky and irritable, we were able to somewhat console them with how much longer it would be until we were out of the car for the night. When Hubby and I were exhausted from driving, we trusted that the room we booked would be ready and waiting for us just as we had planned. We moved on full speed ahead until we arrived at our destination. Just as we had planned over four months ago, everything was in order for us.

I say all of this to relate it to trust and confidence in our daily lives. Think about all of the times we pray and we hope and we sit and we wait, and so often, it seems nothing is happening! We may be ready for a change, ready for a break, ready for something new, ready for relief. We try to be patient, but for how long? How hard it is to trust when it appears everything has remained the same.

But what we don’t see is everything that is already in the works. We don’t see what has already been done for us. We don’t see what has already been prepared for us. We don’t see what is yet to come. Much like my kids in the backseat, we can become impatient, we might whine or begin to question. Or worst of all, we might give up. Just think about all that would be lost, if halfway through our drive yesterday we lost hope that things would go as planned, and we turned around and drove home! Think of all that would be forfeited in that one act of hopelessness.

The truth is, there is so much in this world that is simply out of our control, but that does not mean it is out of control. I have to believe, I have to trust, that as long as I keep moving, there is more in store for me. I have to have faith that there are plans for me beyond anything I have seen.

While life may sometimes feel like you are in the third row of a cramped SUV, knees up to your chin, the air stifled by the smell of Cheetos and your sister’s body lotion, while you have to listen to your little brother butcher the lyrics to your favorite song while your mom finds it adorable and wants to video it, keep going. Even if it seems this leg of life will go on forever, keep going. Even when you feel like you cannot go one more mile, keep going.

Just as our kids had little knowledge of all the behind the scenes plans we have been making, we know little of what has been planned for us. Just as our kids become impatient and have to trust us, we, too, have to trust. Just as our kids will hopefully look back and say they had the time of their lives, we, too, can endure what we have to so that we can truly enjoy the best of what has been prepared for us!