We took a spring break family trip last week in our new minivan with an interesting feature.
The vehicle senses the lines on the road and steers you between them. Theoretically, you could take your hands off the steering wheel and still follow the curves and straightaways of your path.
I’m not the trusting sort. I still hold tightly onto that wheel. I steer my own way in life. It does bring me some comfort, though, knowing if I go a little off-course it nudges me back on course.
For a moment, I wondered what it would be like to have this feature in my life. Then I realized I already do, God.
I might think I’m in control of my own path. Whenever I veered off course, I felt a loving nudge back to where I should be heading as a person.
I felt that nudge with each move of my life. In every case I felt compelled to make a change, something better awaited me on the other side. That eventually led me to my current calling as a husband, father and newspaper editor.
Sometimes I’m too caught up in myself to even nudge, but hindsight proves I never would’ve gotten where I am if it weren’t for a little divine intervention. I’ve made a lifetime full of mistakes, but a forgiving Savior still sees me as redeemable.
I look back at the moderation of my drinking as a prime example. I relied too much on the sauce for my happiness in my 20s, but now I realize the joys of just having a drinking here and there now.
I’m one of the lucky ones. I saw a miracle firsthand, when my infant daughter nearly died shortly after birth. I watched a priest baptize her in the hospital and saw her health change nearly instantly. The doctor and nurses assured us there was more than medicine at work there.
Not everyone gets to witness a miracle. Some are lucky enough to have faith without needing a religious slap across the conscience.
It’s not in vogue to speak positively about religion in this increasingly atheistic society. You’re mocked for believing there had to be a first mover to make the Big Bang happen. You’re ridiculed for believing the world around us might be the result of intelligent design instead of complete luck.
You’re taunted for believing a caring God would bother to nudge you.
We all feel that nudge in different ways. I suspect that nudge will push many Easter and Christmas Christians through church doors this weekend to mark the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I pray you feel welcomed, not necessarily by the people there but by the God who never left your side in the first place.
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