My husband has another woman in his life. He listens to her. He does what she tells him to. Some days he spends more time with her than with me. Her name is Laurie.
When they are driving together, Laurie warns him of turns ahead. If she tells him to turn left here, he does. But sometimes, I, being all about physical maps, override GPS Laurie and tell my husband to go a different way. At first she gently corrects me, “When you can, turn around and go left.” If we ignore her, she gets insistent, “Turn around. Turn around now.”
Recently I took Laurie with me on a road trip although I had already mapped out my route and didn’t expect to need her. The last forty miles involved several turns on lonely stretches of country roads. It was dark, and I had lost my sense of direction. I decided to see what Laurie had to say about the situation.
When she told me to turn onto roads that weren’t named on my directions, I had to decide whether to follow her or continue to search for my original roads. I decided to trust Laurie. At one point when I had missed a turn, Laurie became adamant, “Turn around, turn around.” It was so dark, I hadn’t noticed that the road ended at a boat landing, and I was about to go down the ramp and into the lake.
Laurie not only succeeded in directing me safely to the writers conference I was going to, but made me rethink my plan about which editors, agents, and workshops I had in my sights. Like many of the eager attendees, I had gone with my plan to conquer, kill, and bag a deal.
Yes, I had prayed and asked the Lord for direction, but Laurie made me think about whether I really intended to listen to and follow Him, or continue full speed ahead on my own.
On Friday, I will let you know what happened at the intersections when I took my cue from Laurie and let go and followed God.
Can we, please, rename this other woman?
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Lori