It Might Seem Far, but God Will Bring You to it

When I was younger, I was always excited to see blimps flying over my neighborhood. It was a typical sight to see a Goodyear or MetLife blimp sailing across the air. I often wondered was there anyone inside of it. After all, who was piloting it and making sure that it went were it was supposed to go.

Yesterday, as my mother and I were driving from North Dallas back home to DeSoto, we spotted a blimp in the distance. We were heading south on Interstate 75 and saw this large figure floating in the sky. “Look, it’s a blimp,” I yelled, narrowing my focus more intently on it as we rode along.” I said this with the same enthusiasm as I did back when I was an adolescent.

By the time we neared downtown Dallas, the skyline of tall, beautiful buildings had swallowed it. It was no longer visible and seemed completely out of reach. We veered onto Woodall Rodgers Freeway and as soon as we did, the blimp reappeared.

We made our way onto Interstate 35 to head south for home. In the distance, we could see the blimp as it cascaded over the Margaret Hunt Bridge. “That blimp sure is getting around,” my mother shared. “It’s as if God is showing us something in the distance that we will never be able to reach, yet the more we drive the closer we seem to get to it.”

Our trek took us on to Highway 67 and we made it home. I didn’t think much more about the blimp. A short while later, I went to check the mailbox and lo and behold, I looked up toward the sky and there was the blimp! It was now in “reading view” and hovering over my neighborhood. What once seemed to far away, so unreachable and at such a distance was now in direct view.

I realized that’s how God handles his plans with us sometimes. God will give us the “vision” for something and it can seem so far away and unreachable. We often find ourselves thinking that we will never be able to “reach it” or “attain it.” It can literally seem impossible. But after we’ve traveled enough on our journey, remaining faithful and navigating all the twists and turns, the highways and byways of life, God will bring it to us. We don’t have to chase our blessings. God brings it to us.

Whatever you’re dealing with today, I pray that God will remind you that his plan will come into “direct view,” and I pray that you will stay the course of this faith journey. Keep this acronym for faith in mind: For Anything Impossible Trust Him.

Prayer: Dear God, thank you for showing me a glimpse of your plan for my life. Even when things seem so far away and unreachable, I trust that you are working your plan for me. Help me to stay focused on you and to believe that nothing is impossible with you. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Are You on the Wrong Train?

One late afternoon, I left work early to board the Metro Subway in search of the Department of Motor Vehicles on the lower end of Maryland. I had been a new resident all of six weeks and was informed by the management of the apartment complex where I lived that I was required to have  Maryland license plates and a Maryland driver’s license or risk having my car towed.

I made my way to the platform of the Metro Subway and waited for the Orange Line to pull up. It was the one I rode everyday to get to the Smithsonian Institution where I worked. I boarded it, and after listening to the operator announce the calls of what was next, I realized that I was going the wrong direction. The train was going north and I was supposed to be going south.

I got off at the next stop and headed back to where I began. When I arrived, all the other workers in DC, Virginia and Maryland also arrived. So much for leaving work early. It was crowded. Trains were full, people poured out like maple syrup and I needed to cross over to the other side of the platform to get on the right train. I did - only to miss the first one that came. I looked up and the sign indicated that the next train was coming in seven minutes. It was the Red Line and I learned that it would take me to the very place that I was trying to reach. As I rode the train, daylight began to grow into dusk. The fall season in Maryland adheres to the time change and night comes quickly. I arrived at my stop, walked two blocks to the DMV and saw the “closed sign” on the door. It was 6:05 p.m. I was tired and frustrated. It was a wasted trip.

As it turns out, I never went back to the DMV and my car was never towed. I made a trip and headed to a place based on a “mandate” given to me by someone else, yet was still able to move through the city with the license and tags that I had from Texas. In fact, I kept them the duration of the time that I worked in Washington, DC and never once was stopped by anyone, ticketed or given a citation.

God recently brought that back to my memory as I have pondered and discerned where I am in my career. I know am in the right “subway terminal” but somehow I feel like I am on the wrong platform, on the wrong line, and need to cross over to get to the right train. Sometimes we think we are headed in the right direction based on simply being in the “subway terminal” of where God is calling us, but trying to navigate your way through the different routes of your call can easily have you on the wrong line. And in the process, it can be expensive (I went through two zones and used up what was on my Metro card) and time-consuming.

Maybe God is telling you to move around the platform and get on the Red Line because the Orange Line is taking you on a different route than what’s necessary for where God wants you to be. And maybe the very thing that is being “mandated” is not even necessary for you to continue in what God has called you to do! Are you on the wrong train? Is it time to go in a different direction? Seek God for clarity.