In Due Time

This past week, a revelation was given to me by God. As I was making my morning commute to work, I found myself behind a semi. Now my travel is not on the highway, but rather country roads, and semis on country roads do not move very quickly sometimes. While putzing along behind this truck, I decided I would really rather get to work quicker than I was.

Since I knew these roads very well, I knew the shortcuts and the other roads that would all take me to my destination. So, at the next crossroads, I went right, and he went straight. I picked up my pace and cruised along with no other cares. Now this “shortcut” did eventually lead to the road I was trying to get to, but so did the one I had left. Surely, I thought my way would beat out that semi. But to my surprise, as I rolled up to the stop sign before that road, here he came, and he had the right of way. The wind behind my sails disappeared, and my groove was no longer groovy. For the next couple of miles, I sat behind him at that slow pace again. I had learned my shortcut was not a shortcut after all. Eventually, he turned off, and I was able to pick up speed once again.

So why tell you this story? Because our walk in recovery can be exactly like this. We want to get to our destination quickly. To recover quickly. And there is nothing wrong with this; however, it took time to find ourselves in this process, and it will take time to find ourselves out of it. God is walking alongside us as we do, sometimes he is the one putting that semi-truck in front of us, so that we have to slow down and realize there is some real work that has to be put in, and there is no shortcut for it.

This is not done to hurt us. It is not done to belittle us. It is done to create a resilience in us, a patience.

The semi isn’t hurting us after all; it is simply restricting us for a time. Eventually it will turn to go its own way, or us, a different way. Regardless, it will disappear eventually.

Now you could ask, “Why don’t we just pass the semi?” And that is a good question, and I have just one answer, because there will always be another to slow you down. To teach us this until we learn it.

Do you feel like you are behind a semi in your life now? Maybe it’s hard to see where your future is going, perhaps you just don’t feel like recovery or your spiritual life is taking off. Just hang in there, friend, the time will come when you have the opportunity to sail on the open roads again, for a time.

Gaven F.

A grateful believer in Jesus Christ.