This Monday morning my friend, Cathy, and I set out for Spartanburg to deliver an SUV load of donations to Hearts with Hands. Hearts with Hands is an organization that collects and transports donations for flood victims, and they are heading to Jacksonville to help flood victims due to Hurricane Irma. Our church, Blue Ridge View Baptist Church, graciously collected donations to help these flood victims. Cathy is from Florida. She has been staying with me and was planning to drive the donations back to Florida, but when God worked the unimaginable blessing and spared her house with no damage, she was able to make plans to fly home. That is when we found out about the awesome ministry of Hearts with Hands and all they do for disaster victims. We made arrangements to have them deliver the donations right to the heart of where the most need is in Florida.

Our plan was working great until about five miles before our turnoff on I-85. That is when the inside lane we were driving in suddenly veered all the way across the median and continued in a lane grouped with on-coming traffic separated only by a Jersey barrier. It was interesting driving to say the least.

No warning was given. We were suddenly separated from the next lane by a median, and we could not go anywhere but straight ahead.  For miles, this continued. We passed the first exit, then the next. Before we knew it, we had passed our exit and had gone over ten miles out of the way. Finally, the lane merged back across the median and we were able to turn around  and reach our destination.

Sometimes life is just like this messed up ride to Spartanburg. We are heading for what we believe to be a good thing—something we believe God wants for us, even calls us to, when all of a sudden we find ourselves headed down a much different road, hemmed in on both sides with nowhere to go but straight ahead. We cannot seem to get to the destination we had planned no matter how hard we try.

If only this would happen. If only that would happen. We hope we will be healed. We hope our husband will get the job. We hope we will get pregnant. We wait for our chance. We wait for our family member to make a change. But time and again, it does not happen. We wait and we hope and we pray. Still nothing. Could it be that God had something else planned all along? Is He waiting for us to let go of our iron-fisted grasp before He answers? Is He speaking loudly and clearly but we are not listening?

Nine years ago, God called me to start Grace In The Wilderness. Then one thing after another happened that prevented me from fully pursuing the vision that I felt God had given me for the ministry. Embezzlement by an employee. Chaos in the family. Caring for my dad with Parkinson’s Disease. Breast cancer. Multiple surgeries. A chronic pain illness.

I asked, “What are You doing, God?” “When will it ever get better?” “Why, Lord?” More than once I wanted to give up. By His grace, I did not. I have not. I know that God was and still is working a bigger plan with a better outcome than I could ever have hoped or imagined. He did not need the detour to get ready. I needed the detour for Him to get me ready.

What we have to remember is that God’s ways are higher than our ways. We may not understand what He is doing, but no where in the Bible does it say we have to.

We only have to trust Him—to trust His plans above our desires. Doing this is what I call a sacrifice of praise. Our little detour today was a sacrifice of praise. We trusted that He had a reason for the detour. Now I see it was to give me a subject for this blog.

The praising that we do while we trust and wait for Him in the long, dark night is a sacrifice of praise.

Have you suddenly found yourself on a road that makes no sense? Praise Him anyway.

He will get you where you think you are supposed to be, or He will lead you somewhere else entirely. Praise Him anyway.

When you don’t know where you are headed, just acknowledge that you are okay with that because you know that He is in control. Praise Him anyway.

Jesus, take the wheel!

Dear Lord: We praise You for Your great love, protection and provision for us. Whether we understand Your plans for us or not, help us to always accept them with a good attitude. Help us to offer sacrifices of praise with a willing heart and to always submit to Your authority. Life seems to hem us in on both sides and can be frightening, but Your Word says, “You hem us in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon us.” (Psalm 139:5) Sometimes what seems like no choice for us is Your plan for us to trust You while You grow us and work Your good plans in us. Forgive us when we go kicking and screaming. When we find You are all we have, we find you are all we need. We do not know what the future holds, but we know that You hold the future, and for that we are truly grateful. Amen

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD. Psalm 4:5

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3:5-6

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-1

Have you suddenly found yourself far from where you thought you should be? Has God rerouted you when things were going so well? We welcome your thoughts and comments. Please share your experiences by posting below.

Thank you for reading and sharing my blogpost today. May God always guide you in your journey. When life does not make sense, He always does!