There are mornings when you wake up, say your prayers, mind your business, and expect the day to cooperate.

And then there are mornings when God apparently decides you need a field trip, a fitness test, and a lesson in patience before 9 a.m.

Today was the second kind.

Let me explain.

My husband usually takes me to the dentist. And for reasons known only to him, the Lord, and possibly the Department of Transportation, that man takes some of the strangest back roads I’ve ever seen.

Every time we go, I tell him I couldn’t find my way back through those streets if somebody offered me money.

Well, today he couldn’t take me.

No problem. I’m a grown woman. I’ve been driving for decades. I know how to get to the dentist.

I’m just going to take the long way. The way I KNOW.

Or so I thought.

Everything was going just fine until I got to the last street before the dentist’s office.

Fire trucks. Emergency vehicles. Roadblocks.

The whole production.

And wouldn’t you know it? The detour sent me through those same mysterious back roads my husband always takes!

I had to laugh.

Here I was, determined to avoid the unfamiliar, only to be redirected straight into it.

And somehow, because I’d traveled those roads with him before, they weren’t quite as unfamiliar as I thought.

Sometimes God lets somebody else lead us through a place before we ever realize we’re going to have to navigate it ourselves.

But the morning wasn’t finished with me.

After all that detouring, I finally pulled into the parking lot with FOUR minutes to spare.

Four!

I was feeling pretty accomplished, too.

Until I remembered the elevator.

Now, this particular elevator has a history of being out of order. And my knees and I have a history of disagreeing about stairs.

So I sat there and offered up a simple little prayer.

“Lord, PLEASE let that elevator be working today.”

I wasn’t asking for the Red Sea to part. I wasn’t asking for manna from heaven. I wasn’t even asking for a parking space at the front door.

Just an elevator.

Apparently, Heaven had other plans.

Because that elevator wasn’t working.

FOUR FLIGHTS OF STAIRS.

Four.

And let me tell you something. By the time I made it to the top, I had huffed, puffed, negotiated with my knees, questioned my life choices, and probably burned off a breakfast I hadn’t even eaten yet.

But I made it.

I walked into that dentist’s office, probably looking like I’d just completed a mountain expedition, only to discover…

THE COMPUTERS WERE DOWN.

Excuse me?

You mean to tell me I survived emergency vehicles, a surprise tour of my husband’s secret highway system, and four flights of stairs, only to arrive at an office that wasn’t even ready for ME?

Lord, we need to talk.

And somewhere in the middle of my frustration, a thought began to settle in my spirit.

How often do we do exactly this in life?

We insist on taking the road we know because it feels safer. We resist unfamiliar directions because we don’t understand where they’re leading.

But sometimes the detour isn’t taking us away from our destination. It’s showing us another way to get there.

Sometimes the people God places beside us have been quietly preparing us for roads we didn’t know we’d have to travel alone.

And sometimes, even after we’ve prayed for the elevator, we still have to climb the stairs.

Not necessarily because God is testing us. Not because every inconvenience is some grand spiritual assignment.

Sometimes elevators are simply broken.

Sometimes emergencies close roads.

And sometimes computers crash.

But even in the ordinary frustrations of life, there can be extraordinary reminders.

A detour doesn’t mean you’re lost.

An unanswered prayer for an easier path doesn’t mean you’ve been abandoned.

And arriving exhausted doesn’t mean you’ve arrived too late.

I spent the morning worrying about getting to a place that, when I finally arrived, wasn’t quite ready to receive me.

Maybe that’s the part I needed to sit with.

We spend so much of our lives rushing, worrying, and exhausting ourselves trying to make sure we don’t miss what is meant for us.

And sometimes, after all that striving, we discover that the timing was never entirely in our hands anyway.

I don’t know about you, but I needed that reminder.

I would have preferred to receive it sitting comfortably in a working elevator, with a fresh cup of coffee in my hand.

But apparently, today’s classroom had four flights of stairs.

And the tuition was paid by my knees.

Today’s reminder: You can know where you’re going and still need directions. You can pray for an easier journey and still encounter stairs. And you can arrive with only four minutes to spare and discover you weren’t the one holding things up.

Sometimes the lesson isn’t in reaching the destination.

It’s in recognizing what the journey revealed along the way.

Now, Lord, if we’re finished with today’s lesson, could we PLEASE get somebody to fix that elevator?

My knees would like to submit a formal prayer request.

Love, Chelle
defygravitywithoutwings.com

P.S. Just in case you’re wondering…

Yes, the computers eventually came back up.

Just in time for me to pay my copay.

Because apparently, the roads can be blocked, the elevator can be broken, the computers can crash, and the whole world can come to a screeching halt…

But the ability to collect my money?

Oh, THAT miracle was right on time!

Won’t He do it? 🙄😂