U-Turns
I’ve never understood why people panic when they miss a turn.
You know the kind.
They slam on their brakes.
Cut across three lanes of traffic.
Make everyone around them wonder if today’s the day they’re going to die because someone almost missed an exit.
Meanwhile, I’m over here thinking…
You know we can just make a U-turn, right?
The exit isn’t disappearing.
The road isn’t closing behind you.
We’ll get there.
It might take another five minutes.
We’ll survive.
Sometimes we even get there faster.
Have you ever noticed that?
You miss a turn, your GPS recalculates, and somehow your arrival time actually goes down.
It always makes me laugh.
The route changed.
The destination didn’t.
I think about that more often than I probably should.
Because I’ve spent a lot of my life treating decisions like interstate exits.
What if I choose the wrong job?
The wrong relationship?
The wrong apartment?
The wrong opportunity?
The wrong church?
The wrong answer?
What if I miss the turn God wanted me to take?
For a long time, I imagined God standing beside the road with a clipboard.
“Well…you missed it.”
“That was the life I had planned for you.”
“Better luck next time.”
The older I get…
The less I think that’s how He works.
I think God is much more like GPS.
Not because He changes His mind.
Because He already knows every possible road.
When I miss a turn…
He doesn’t abandon the trip.
He simply says,
“Recalculating.”
I love that word.
Recalculating.
Not,
“Trip canceled.”
Not,
“You’re too far gone.”
Just…
“Let’s find another way from here.”
I’ve made wrong turns.
Some of them small.
Some of them painful.
Some of them hurt people I love.
Some of them hurt me.
If I could go back, there are certainly decisions I’d make differently.
But looking back, I also see something else.
God has never seemed surprised by any of them.
He’s never looked at my life and said,
“Well…now I have no idea what to do.”
He simply kept leading me.
Sometimes through consequences.
Sometimes through healing.
Sometimes through roads I never would’ve chosen if I’d stayed on the original route.
And every now and then…
Those roads became the ones I’m most grateful for.
I’ve also realized something.
Anxiety often tells me there’s only one right road.
One right decision.
One right timing.
One right answer.
One chance.
Miss it…
and everything falls apart.
Grace tells a different story.
Grace says that while my choices matter…
God is bigger than my mistakes.
That He can redeem detours.
That He can work through delayed exits.
That He can even use roads I wish I’d never traveled.
Not because the wrong turn was good.
But because He is.
That’s a very different way to live.
It doesn’t make me careless.
I still want to make wise decisions.
I still pray.
I still seek counsel.
I still pause before big choices.
But I don’t have to drive through life terrified that one missed exit will ruin the whole journey.
Because I’ve learned something.
Every good road trip has a wrong turn.
Every good story has a few detours.
And every time I hear my GPS quietly say,
“Recalculating…”
I smile.
Because maybe that’s been God’s voice all along.
