Curves in the Road

I was driving home from the reunion at the Parker's house tonight, the same way I've always driven. As I rounded the last curve over the little hill exiting Hampton Cove, I replayed moments from the night, the good time spent with friends, the last year's turn of events. I drove on autopilot (admittedly taking the curves too fast), the orange and white barrels on each side of the road barely registered in my mind. What if the friends I was attempting to match-make actually ended up together? How DOES Melissa assist with surgery and enjoy holding back internal organs while the surgeon snip, snips away? Why did I eat 3 of those yummy pumpkin cookies? And then--- a quick jolt to reality and out of autopilot--- as my car bang!thump!whammed! over rough, unfinished road-under-construction. That is when I remembered that road has been under construction since before I last came home at Thanksgiving. That is when the orange and white barrels began to register. As I struggled to regain control, slow down my petrified car and turn around, my scared and angry thoughts turned to which construction company failed to properly blockade the road and display adequate signage. To whom could I address my letter of complaint?

A little further down the detour road and a little less shaken up, I had to laugh at my own mistake. I was simply going down a familiar road thinking I knew what lay around the corner. And then I hit upon what has become something of a theme for me lately: How similar life is to a country road. When I think back over the last few years, all the times I've been coasting along down the road I think I should be travelling, when I think I know who and what lay ahead, how many times have I been detoured? Shaken up? Lost?

Who would have thought I'd be where I am today, in life, in career, in relationship? When I had my sights set for a front porch swing and life-long commitment, I ended up in the ditch with dreams dissolved, a revived spirit and renewed sense of freedom I still thank God for to this day. When I was a bit more naive and dead-set on DC, I was detained for the campaign experience of my life where I gained some valuable perspective as well as dear friends. And who would have thought that the little old couple in the back of their church would become my family away from home? Or that we'd see the death of Miss Elizabeth so tragic and so soon? If you had told me a year ago that I'd move to DC to see my first rodeo, do my first two-step, and own my first pair of cowgirl boots, I would have laughed and told you you're crazy.

But that just goes to show you, you never know what's around the next bend or just over the hill. We can coast or move along with heads in the clouds or the best-intentioned plans, but you never really know where life, or the Lord, will lead you. This gives me hope. While sometimes what's just around the bend can throw a kink in my plans 0r may even bring tragedy, I know that in the end I only have to hold out to see what's around the next curve in the road. I never really know how far or how close I am from the career-changing opportunity, some defining spiritual revelation, or, heaven forbid, the man of my dreams. And when someone bigger and better than I is directing my path, what may appear to be a bothersome detour or bump in the road might just be steering me exactly where I need to be.