Brenda’s Blog – March 26, 2024
“Brenda, there is not a curve on this road that isn’t engineered to be taken at the stated speed. You don’t have to ride the brake through the entire curve.”
Recently, I was behind a very cautious driver navigating our hilly, narrow roads out to the main road in East Texas. I was late to church and aggravated as I saw the brake lights permanently shining in the early morning darkness. “For goodness sake, just keep on – you don’t need to crawl through every little hill or curve!” was what I was thinking.
Then I remembered myself as a 16 year old on a road trip with my Dad. Traveling to North Carolina with him was great fun… except when he decided I needed mountain experience. I clung to the road and the steering wheel with my foot rarely leaving the brake – much to my Dad’s frustration. Finally, he “explained” the fine points of road design.
He was right. If the engineer thought the risk required a severe reduction in speed the signs indicated the information. But as a very “fraidy cat” teenage driver I hesitantly entered every curve as if my caution was all that stood between us and the precipice below.
Finally, Dad decided I had all the experience I needed for that day! (And of course, the agony for him.)
In trying to be patient the other day it occurred to me that God works the same way with us. “Yes, this struggle, this storm, this turmoil makes you want to withdraw, putting on your brakes. But, there is no situation that I haven’t divinely engineered with the capacity to trust me and lean into the situation rather than slamming on the brakes – trust me!”
He knows – He cares – He doesn’t want us to go over the cliff. But He also doesn’t want us to throw up our hands, flailing like the faithless. If it is a 60 miles per hour curve, then He has given us all we need to keep us moving. If He knows we need to reduce the speed of life, resting from the tumult, He will provide that, as well. But the choice is His – we are to trust His wisdom just as we trust the engineering expertise of those who constructed the curvy mountain roads of Western North Carolina.