This week, much of the Chapel staff was away at a conference.  The intention was to keep you posted on what was going on, but our hotel had other ideas.  Mainly, their idea was to charge $12.99 per day to use wireless internet.  My idea then morphed into filling you in this week for free. That is the great thing about ideas, they are subject to change–especially when the cost of wi-fi is hiked up.

But before we even got to the conference, here was my thought: “God don’t you know where I am!”

I thought this because, after spending around 12 hours in a van–it was a very slow, traffic-filled trip–we experienced a tire blowout.  Yep, literally a mile and a half from the solace of our hotel the back right tire had had enough.

White-knuckling the steering wheel of the now-veering van, I yelled in my mind (the quietest place for such shouts): “God don’t you know where I am!”

We got to the hotel.  I went to sleep. I reset my weary mind, but still the idea lingered the next morning that perhaps I am just bounding around this life and finding God’s place for me in this world is akin to winning the lottery or something.

Then the first session’s speaker came to the stage and reminded me of something.  It was something that had been uttered at him time and time again growing up and now, in adulthood, he could look back and see the difference it had made.  The phrase was simple–one said to him daily by his didactic father–and it was this: “God has a plan for you and you don’t want to miss it.”

The blown tire was not a surprise for God, and now I see why.  Through it, a simple midnight pit stop in the middle of a Dallas freeway, I doubted God.  I doubted that He knew where I was or where I was going or how close–how very, very close!–I was to a much-needed bed.

And then, despite my doubt, God faithfully reminded me the next day that indeed He does know where I am. He had readied my heart to hear a simple truth about Him and respond accordingly. God knew, even on the side of the road, where I was. And even more, He knows where he wants me to go next.  He has a plan for me, and I don’t want to miss it, blown tires and all.