So we have officially moved to Atlanta. It has been so great. We love it here!

All of our Florida chaos has disappeared.

And now it’s Georgia chaos.

But that’s OKAY! Because it’s a fresh view of the chaos that is our life. Chaos is so much prettier with mountains in the background.

We are still in the depths of boxes and unpacking and organizing and figuring out school stuff and orienting to the new job and LEARNING WHERE STUFF IS.

Our little community is not exactly in the thick of things (which makes us sing praises – we love this peace and quiet). Every time we need a gallon of milk, we have choices to make. Do we go left to Town A or turn right for Town B. Or if we need more than a gallon of milk, we could choose to go north to Town C or south to Town D.

Depending on which town we choose that day, our routes will be drastically different. Are we braving the highway with the notorious Atlanta traffic? Most often, I choose the scenic back roads.

I have a fairly decent sense of direction but I am so completely way out of my league with all of these different roads through farmland and foothills. I don’t know what I’d do without the GPS on my phone.

I’ve been using the standard navigation app on my phone. I plug in my destination, choose the route based on distance, and off I go. And stop. And go. And stop. Caught in the perpetual construction and traffic.

My brother and sister-in-law have lived in Atlanta for a while and are basically professionals at driving here. So they told me about this other navigation app called Waze.

And my world has changed.

If you’ve never heard of it, Waze is kinda like Google Maps and Twitter had a baby. Based on reports from its users, Waze can tell you where the traffic jams are (spoiler alert: they’re everywhere) and update your route in real time to avoid delays.

But it requires a LOT of trust.

And, ooh, it’s hard for me. I want to research a route, plan the best course in turn-by-turn detail, commit to it and follow it through until I reach my destination. Slightly type A. Just a little.

With Waze, you might assume you’re driving straight down the highway and then suddenly she will tell you to take a left here and a right there. You’ll find yourself in a subdivision and start shaking your fist at the GPS and demanding to know where she’s taken you and why you are so far off the
route you planned out so carefully. But if you give it a hot minute, you’ll take that one last turn and find yourself back on the highway, 20 miles down the road on the other side of a total roadblock.

Isn’t that so much like life?

I have planned out so many details about the way I want (even expect) things to go in my life and it can be really frustrating when God suddenly gives me a left turn out of nowhere.

And yes, I will admit that I have sometimes even found myself shaking my fist and demanding to know where He’s taking me and why I’m so far off the course I planned out.

But always, always, always, when I give Him a hot minute, I’ll find myself 20 miles down life’s road and be able to look back and see the total roadblocks that He led me around.

God is God and I am not. The GPS is now a daily reminder that I can trust Him to plot my course.

And when things don’t make much sense, give it a hot minute.

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.”
Proverbs 16:9, NKJV