I hate that my favorite Bible verse is so… cliche.

I envy those who start quoting some powerful verses about redemption from condemnation when asked about their favorite verse. And as much as I love and cherish those verses, it doesn’t do that special something for me as when I turn to the wise words of King Solomon in Proverbs 3:5.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and He will direct your path.”

I like the verse because it gives me comfort when I have important life decisions to make. Instead of staying up all night worrying and contemplating, I can rest assured that God will lead me in the right direction if I go to Him for help.

But recently, I got a major reality check about whether I really trust “with all my heart.”

This past weekend was extremely busy for me. Errands, drop offs, shopping… it was fun, but tiring.

On Saturday, I had a meeting to go to on the other side of town. I didn’t know exactly where to go from where I was, so I naturally typed in the address into my GPS. And bada bing, bada boom… I made it to my destination with minutes to spare.

On my way home, I used the GPS again just to get me to a certain highway. Once I got to the highway, I got ready to turn the GPS off because I knew my way home from there.

I looked down to turn the GPS off and noticed that it was telling me to exit way earlier than I was supposed to.

“Hold on… why is Gigli (that’s what I call the Google version of Siri) telling me to get off there? I can just ride this highway all the way home.”

It had already been a long day; but for some reason, I just followed wherever Gigli was trying to take me.

When I exited where Gigli told me to, she said in her wanna-be human voice, “You are on the fastest route home.”

She was crazy talking! The straight shot down the highway was the fastest way, but I didn’t have time to deal with Gigli that day. Besides, she already shares her name with one of the worst movies in history.

I looked over to my left to see the highway I just exited. About three miles down the road, there were nothing but red tail lights. Further down, there were flashing police and ambulance lights.

Apparently, Gigli knew about that accident and was trying to get me to avoid it.

If I had leaned on my own understanding of a way that I always take home, I would have been stuck in that pileup. But I listened to good ol’ Gigli, and she got me home with zero traffic.

That had me thinking…

I was SO willing to trust some computer device without arguing against it with my “logic,” so how come when I feel God telling me to do something, I have to debate about it and challenge Him to prove it by doing some ridiculous task.

I remember this one time in Sunday School when we were learning about Gideon.

You can read about it here; but long story short, Gideon wanted to make 100% sure that God wanted to use him to save Israel, so he asked God to make it rain only on a piece of fleece while leaving the surrounding ground dry. When God did it, Gideon asked God to make it rain again, but to leave the fleece dry while the ground was wet. God did that too, and then Gideon complied to God’s will.

Well, my young and dumb self started trying to use that test for everything.

“Lord, if I can get an ‘A’ on the test without studying, let all the leaves blow in the wind except the one I’m looking at.”

“God, if I’m supposed to give this homeless guy a dollar, let that stoplight three streets down turn green… now.”

When I got older, I realized that God isn’t some genie who does our bidding. He’s the Creator of the universe who guides us through the craziness of life for His glory.

But He can’t guide us if we don’t listen to Him.

Just as freely as I was able to give Gigli control of where I needed to go, I need to allow God—who created the universe that houses the satellite from which Gigli gets her information —to move freely through me to live my life to its fullest potential.

Exiting off the highway went against common sense. But Gigli saw what road blocks were ahead.

What I feel compelled to do may seem illogical and impossible, but God can see the future. He knows what the end result will be before I even start.

And sometimes it won’t make complete sense. But that’s why it’s so important to trust that God knows what He’s doing… and He does! 

Once my next steps are official, I’ll keep you posted on what I feel led to do.