Today, GPS gadgets run the roads like tablets run our lives. They definitely replaced the paper maps, which were our old beacons at sea.
There are many things I don’t like on the road: the ramps, the forks, the roundabouts, entry and exit, the sharp corners, the descents and ascents, and even the signs: keep left, turn right, junction numbers and exits. They are all intended as guides to my destination, but they only confuse me! So you see, I am directionally challenged! People like me struggle with maps. So I keenly embraced the GPS when it replaced maps on the road.
I’ve only written about the monsters on my road, so let me say a few words about the devil in my GPS. After entering my coordinates, I pulled out of the garage at 7.15 a.m., scheduled to arrive at my destination (London, South of England) at 3.15 p.m. Turn by Turn, fork by fork, ramp by ramp, and exit by exit, I worked hard maintaining that harmony between the road and my GPS.
I had traveled over 120 miles, supposedly down south, and my GPS instructed me to exit the highway. After traveling 10 minutes on my exit, my GPS bullishly declared, you have reached your destination!
Dazed! I cast a glance toward my wife. A three-by-three-foot wooden gate stood directly in front of us; it was the entrance to a FARM HOUSE! Then, as if to upset me even more, my GPS repeated: You have now arrived at your destination!
Well, I just spent 2 hours of my time attempting to get down south by going north! I was road dumb! You can blame the GPS!
I was so fixated on my destination so much that I paid little attention to the road ahead, its landmarks, and the road signs – all tell-tale signs of my positioning on the road.
Are You a Destination Freak?
You can blame the GPS for indulging a generation of travelers like me who are so obsessed about our destination that we pay scant attention to the road in front of us. Destination freaks, you may call us! We, X, mark two points A —— B. We get obsessed about the X and forget about the road.
Well, our journey is more about what happens between points A and B than it is about the destination. It is about the wonderful choices we make. The courage we display at each junction, at each fork, each turn, and intersection in our road. It is about the fortitude and character we develop that helps us embrace our road and all that lies in it.
Our path in life is not always straightforward; occasionally, when we look around, we feel lost. We are terrified of rounding the next corner. And we wonder what the next intersection holds; we develop a phobia for the road we travel.
Sometimes we pull up by the roadside and wonder how we have ended up on this road. We take a look at our map and search desperately to see if other people’s roads lead to our destination! But then we hear that small, still voice saying: “Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.”
Love Your Road More Than Your Destination!
We all have our own roads, and yours isn’t the same as mine. Your exit isn’t my exit. My intersection is different than yours. My destination isn’t the same as yours. It is your own road, after all! Even if the intersections, exits, sharp turns, potholes, forks, and signs look confusing and scary, they are all part of the road to your destination, your destiny. There is a reason God does life that way!
My road is meant to be adored and loved; The means justifies the end, seriously, not the other way around. Why do people labor so hard to climb Mount Everest if they can easily be dropped at its peak? It is not for the adulation because you get that at the peak. It is the ascent that makes you worthy of that peak. Your road makes you worthy of your destination, so embrace it: forks, potholes, intersections, and exits!
