Vacation

 

Last week, we took our first road trip in our "new to us" van that we purchased about a year ago. We knew the DVD player didn't work so we were going to bring ours from home but we needed two things to make it work. Walmart in LaGrange showed that they had it in stock, but they didn't have it. I forgot the quickest way to get to 85 using the bypass so I asked Jachelle to put Newnan in the GPS, thinking that it would take me to 85 and I would know where to go from there. That was not the case. I should have recognized after the third turn that we were going back roads but I didn't until it was too late. It took us 15 to 20 minutes longer to go the back roads. 

Passing the Atlanta airport, I thought about how I haven't driven to Helen from Atlanta before, so, I wasn't sure of the route I needed to take. I wanted to go 985 because it was the way I knew. Instead, I listened to my GPS and I got on 400. I regretted it immediately. About 3 exits into being on 400, I considered turning around but there was always someone preventing me from taking the exit. There was no turning back. My GPS rerouted me and we continued on our journey. I've been down 400 before, hence, the reason I hated it. However, this time was completely different. It was absolutely beautiful! It took me through a town I lived in 20 years ago, called, Dahlonega. I have probably lived in 100 different cities in the Eastern states ranging from Opelika, Alabama to Erie, Pennsylvania. I even lived a short time in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.

I could probably name all the bad, in all of those places, quicker than I could the good. I could probably tell you the best bars or liquor stores to go to quicker than I could tell you the best churches. I could probably even tell you all the church going folks that lived the same life I did quicker than I could tell you about the ones that didn't. When I was growing up, my parents had a bumper sticker that said, "If you're heading in the wrong direction, God allows U-turns". Even though I grew up in church and knew that God forgave anything and everything, I always thought that phrase was stupid because once we've made a bad decision, we can't erase it, delete it or take it back. Making a U-turn, in life, wouldn't change anything. After developing a relationship with Jesus Christ, I see now that it is a matter of the heart. It's changing the bad habits I once had into good habits. It's changing my heart to then encourage others to do the same. It's trusting the Lord to be with you when you take the wrong road. It's knowing that something beautiful can come out of taking a wrong turn if you allow yourself to see what God would want you to see.

I could gripe and complain the entire time, which would change absolutely nothing, except for the mood in and around me. I could turn back and make it longer before I reach my destination, making me and everyone around me miserable. OR, I could live with the decisions I've made, make the best of it and even find joy in the bad. 

In the first American English dictionary, Repent means, "to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life". It doesn't mean we have to start over. The Lord has given us free will to choose for ourselves. It is my desire to choose wisely. It is also my desire to have joy in every situation... Even the ones where I haven't chosen wisely or when I didn't have a choice. The choice that I choose to make is to choose joy. The joy that can only be found through Jesus Christ.