I was on a recent trip across the country (well more like a small portion of the country) with one of my best friends. We calculated our drive to be about 14 hours - a nice task for one day and a piece of cake for 2 days. We chose the two day route. The first day went by relatively fast and we were planning for the second day to be even better. We were making good time, having great debates and so on. However, midway through the second day we ran into a little problem - crawling traffic. We were less than 4 hours from our destination but it felt like our trip had just begun. After quickly rerouting our drive, we turned around and decided that we would bypass all the traffic and still make decent time - not as good as scheduled but it was better than just waiting in the car and moving 2 miles an hour. We make our detour and without trouble successfully enter back onto the main highway miles beyond the traffic. High fives and praises ensue because we assumed that all the trouble was behind us. Full speed ahead!! We move - making up time we believed we lost. But!! ("Church say but") after just 30 minutes we find ourselves in more crawling traffic. (We discovered later that the highway was jammed in two places) It was almost laughable to be in the same situation we thought we had left behind but I think we were both a little disappointed. We made plans to meet with a group of our friends and eat a tasty dinner but those plans would have to certainly be rainchecked. By the time we reached my crib, we were on the road for 13 hours on the 2nd day. This brought our total travel time to 20 hours - 5 or 6 hours longer than what we had anticipated. I usually consider myself a patient person but I became impatient during this trip because I was so close to my destination. We found out later that another one of our friends recently traveled along the same route and his trip was 4 or 5 hours longer for the same reason. I thought about that and I was reminded of this scripture found in James 1:3-4 - I attempted to bypass a process that I must go through in order to get where I needed to go. Patience is a tool that we are given by God's Holy Spirit that allows us to develop into the Christian men and women we are destined to be. If you stray off that path, sooner or later you will be rerouted back where you need to be. The path won't be any shorter but you will have the same driver of your faith - Jesus Christ. That's a reason to be joyful and patient because with Christ we are destined to make it -
