Where I’m Going

In the last 5 days, I’ve been in 4 different states. I may not have left the airport in two of them but, either way, it got me thinking. So many of us travel every day, whether that be on a plane, in a car, on a train, on a bike, or simply walking to the store down the street. So many times in this day and age, I fear going more than five steps outside my apartment. Sometimes I can’t 

leave the apartment at all. This weekend was an exception. I took two flights, a two-hour shuttle ride, and a forty minute drive completely on my own. How did I get through it?

    Usually, when I’m traveling, I feel far more at ease when I’m traveling with someone or when I know I’ll be meeting someone at the end of it. The more details are hammered out, the better. I have travelled to the two separate airports before, so maybe the familiarity was the secret? My shuttle ride breaks that rule, though, since I’ve never taken one and so does the forty-minute drive I took since I was driving a car I’d never driven before. So what’s the real reason? 

    The answer came from the mouth of the Uber driver who picked Jake and I up from our return trip yesterday. We were talking about traveling and how he loves to travel when he said, “People in my life ask me if I ever get anxious when I travel. I tell them ‘when you have a faith- a spirituality- a connection with God, you don’t have anything to fear. He’ll have your [stuff] taken care of….You have nothing to fear.’” Jake, myself, and our driver continued to talk about how everything we do in life prepares us for the Eternal Kingdom and, as long as we’re living a good life and doing the best we can to fulfill His purpose, there’s no reason to assume the worst. 

    Talk about a God moment, right? I never in my wildest dreams expected my ride home at 7:30 PM to call me on to remember why I have the life I do. The path we walk in this life is not our own. Read that again. The path we walk in this life is not our own. It’s not. We are all (myself so included) guilty of trying to grip to our own plans and carving our own path. What we forget is He has laid the plans already. It isn’t for us to choose. 

None of this isn’t to say that our choices don’t matter. He gave us free will, for goodness sake! It is to say that no step we take, no place we go, no sight we see is without God’s hand and will. When I got up and requested an Uber all by myself on Wednesday, He was sitting beside me. When I got lost in the airport and had to run to my gate, He kept me calm. When I navigated the shuttle, He let the details be known. When I drove through crazy Minneapolis/St. Paul traffic and panicked when the GPS took me on a back road, He helped me not to give up or break down. I couldn’t have gotten through it without Him. 

When I realized all of this, the first thing that came to my mind was the poem “Footprints in the Sand.” I’m nearly positive every mother and grandmother in the last thirty years has either gifted or been given this poem, framed nicely with a picture of a beach (my grandmother has it cross stitched and framed!). If you haven’t read it, it goes like this: 

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed

he was walking along the beach with the LORD.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.

For each scene he noticed two sets of

footprints in the sand: one belonging

to him, and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,

he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path of

his life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very

lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he

questioned the LORD about it:

"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow

you, you'd walk with me all the way.

But I have noticed that during the most

troublesome times in my life,

there is only one set of footprints.

I don't understand why when

I needed you most you would leave me."

The LORD replied:

"My son, my precious child,

I love you and I would never leave you.

During your times of trial and suffering,

when you see only one set of footprints,

it was then that I carried you." 

 Author: Carolyn Joyce Carty

    This week, God helped me through some “footprints” moments. He does more often than I tend to think. I’m sure, if you sat back and looked at your life, you’d find your own “footprints” moments, too. I will never forget, and will always be thankful for, the Uber driver’s words. No matter what I’m doing, no matter where I’m going, God’s walking beside me and He’s got me. I have nothing to fear.