Image credit: New Cars
Less than a month ago (at the time of writing this post), I decided the time was right to buy me a car. I thought I’ll buy a relatively inexpensive one, that is, spend about £1500-2000 maximum on it. A good friend advised that since it is a first car and I hadn’t driven in a while, just three times (car rentals) since I got my license 2 years ago, it might be best to start small and make all my mistakes with a cheap ol’ banger. I agreed because to be honest, if I had my way, I’d have started my driving career by learning to ride a bicycle, then a ‘keke-marwa/napep’1, then a motor cycle, before getting into a car. Or I may have just started with a horse, then a horse-drawn cart! Who knows?!
Anyway, I bought this gold 2001 Toyota car for just under £900, insured it for a similar price and drove it home. I was really nervous about driving; the car just felt like a large weapon of destruction that could develop a mind of its own if I don’t hold the steering wheel tight enough and if I’m not extra careful. I had to come out for prayers the weekend I got it! Serious! That’s how scared I was! But I faced my fears and kept driving, even though it meant empty stomachs before each drive, if you know what I mean . . . ;).
Two weeks into my driving career, I was returning home from a CPD training session somewhere in South Manchester, ~ 40 minutes’ drive from home, somewhere I’d only been to using public transportation. Next thing you know, my (borrowed) Sat-Nav decided to direct me from the floor of the car instead of from the windshield! Thankfully, I’d before that journey increased the Sat-Nav’s volume and I wasn’t playing music in the car. So I thought, “Oh well, I’ll have to drive by hearing!”
Image credit: WhatLauraLoves
Instead of this child-of -GOD to stick with that, I decided to try and reach for it and put it back in its place. In the process, I drifted into the road-divider, demarcating the road works’ lane from the usable lanes. But the GOD whose I am, made me look up in time to see this and I swerved sharply to the right and again, HE made the driver of the red car on my right alert or LORD knows, I may have said hello in the love language of touch!
My heart felt like it temporarily changed locations; it was beating fast, my hands were shaking, I was shaking, the car behind me stayed even further behind . . . lol. Wise move there! I gave up on trying to move it from the floor and decided to LISTEN to it instead of SEE it. And as I listened and paid attention to the instructions, I didn’t miss a turn and got home in one piece.
Yes, you guessed right! I have a point with this story! As an engineer, I figured sound was first transmitted before images, and a quick Google search corroborated my thinking. I mean, remote villages have radios way before TVs! And as a Christian, sometimes all I have to go on to navigate this life is what GOD speaks to me through the WORD and through HIS SPIRIT in me. And reading books by great men of GOD confirms this. Not every time walk by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), sometimes walk by hearing and trusting what GOD has placed on your heart and in your spirit and go with it. The Bible says Faith comes by hearing the WORD of GOD, remember (Romans 10:17)?
Image credit: Fifty6
We’re never really handicapped as children of GOD if we’ll pay listening and obeying attention to HIS heart and HIS voice instead of seeking physical manifestations even though we would, at least I would prefer that. Writing on the wall, anyone? Yes, please!
Additionally, due to my reduced number of inputs from 2 to 1, I had to shut off even more distractions and tune down the voices in my mind or worries about what troubles may come up if I miss my way or misinterpret what I was hearing. And I just had to pay attention and obey the voice of the Sat-Nav and trust it to lead me home. This is exactly what Jesus wants us, wants me to do as I travel through life HOME – to just shut down the wrong voices and tune in to HIS only, look unto HIM while trusting HIM to take me HOME.
I hope this blesses you somehow, it did me.
To your health and peace!
1 three-cycled public transport vehicles
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