Lost and Found

For as much as I travel with my job, I almost consider my car to be my first home and my actual house to be my second. Thus, my car has so many of the luxuries that are "necessities" while travelling... navigation system, satellite radio, multiple charger port, etc. My nav sytem is pretty good, and sometimes it ends up being a "little" off...this being one of those times.

This week I have been travelling through SE WA and had to see a client about 2 hours away in NE OR. In the past I have taken a smaller highway to get to Hwy 84 and there is a little shortcut that shaves about 10 minutes off the route. The problem is I couldn't always remember exactly where it is, but I figured that my nav system would find it since it looks for the shortest route. So when it said to turn left at a certain point that looked vaguely familiar, I turned... and realized that it wasn't the correct place. I knew I was going to be a little late as a result, and that I was too far into the path to turn around without being really late, so I continued on. This new path took me on a 2 lane highway through a beautiful national forest and as I had to navigate the sharp turns rather slowly, it forced me to look around. I counted no less than 5 deer off to the sides in the forest; the trees were blazing in their fall colors, there was a stunning view of a glassy lake off to my right, and I don't remember seeing evergreens so tall. I am sure that there are many on my travels...I just don't pay attention as I am whizzing past at 60 (OK, 70) miles an hour. With so much going on in my life right now, I know that it can get so easy to get caught up in the things that have to get done--work, school, boyfriend, friends, family, etc--that I can miss out on the things that have to get experienced. Driving the 60 miles through the forest forced me to contemplate and consider the beauty of God's creation in ways that I haven't bothered to in a long time, and I am grateful for the opportunity. In the end, I wasn't late at all, I arrived just when I needed to to meet my client.

While all of these technological advances exist to make our lives easier, they are indeed man-made devices and thus are imperfect. My nav system, while amazing most of the time, still sometimes sends me down a road that doesn't exist, misses an exit that I *know* I should be taking, suggests an impractical route, or sends me down a 2 lane highway instead of the 4 lane freeway.

And sometimes, it sends me exactly where I need to be.