Interstate Lessons

I'm posting because I'm waiting for Jimmy to get home from "shootin' birds" (the literal, not figurative kind) and have had a slightly stressful day from which I should decompress. Most importantly, though, God gave me a great illustration through a frustrating experience that I wanted to share...

One of my dear friends, Heather, from Gainesville, had a baby shower today in Orlando. While driving on I-4, I took a look at the directions (yes, for the first time) and noticed that one of the roads I would have to take to get to my destination was 528- "Oh No! Not a dreadful toll road?!" Well, as usual I found myself headed for the money hungry asphalt with nothing to feed it except maybe 75 cents that I could scrounge from the bottom of my purse and the sticky cup holders. (Toll attenders must hate people like me who give such dirty money ;) I was afraid that the toll road would require much more money than what I had to offer and running the tolls, though a definite option, was not the best idea considering I've done that one (or more) times in the past while lost in Jamlando. I didn't want to push my luck and be targeted as a 'repeat offender'. I called my friend Heather and asked if there was another route I could take. She insisted that I meet her near her mother's house in Kissimmee, so I scooted off the interstate just in time to jump onto 192 and head in her direction. From here the story gets long and frustrating...bottom line is, I got lost in the process of taking the new route, went many miles and minutes out of the way, wasted a quarter of a tank of gas (there goes my daily contribution to saving the environment), and most ashamedly, held up my friend who ended up being 30 minutes late for her own baby shower! (At this point everyone reading this should be feeling pretty darn great about themselves. Your welcome. I do what I can.)

While at the shower enjoying some delicious chocolate and strawberry cake and talking to extremely nice people, I found out from other Polk Countians that it cost a whopping, you guessed it, 75 cents at the toll booth to travel the infamous 528 hungry asphalt road! Wow, did I feel like an idiot. Everyone was trying to give this poor girl some money to make it back home! More importantly, I felt embarrassed that my anticipation was far worse than the reality and cost me far more than I would have had to pay otherwise.

So on the way home, the gracious Holy Spirit used that "teachable moment" (wink wink, for all you teachers out there) and brought things into perspective for me. In life, how often does our mere anticipation and fear of the unknown cost us more emotionally and spiritually than what we would have encountered otherwise? So often, instead of living in the now, we live in the past or future, carrying the burdens of yesterday and worrying about the possibilities of tomorrow. We force ourselves to experience hurts, pains, and difficulties twice (once in frantic anticipation as we worry and again if and when the trial comes). "Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matt. 6:34.