I experienced my first Trax trip in 2009. My own car at the time was a little blue Pulsar, so sliding behind the wheel of a big 4×4 was a pretty new experience!
I really didn’t know what I was doing but thankfully, sitting behind me was the Trax convenor Terry, who did. I turned the wheel and dealt with pedals, but Terry was the one telling me what to do. There were times when I thought what he was telling me was counter-intuitive. There were times when his instructions didn’t make sense to me. But that’s because he knew more about what was going on than I did. When I trusted him enough to listen, even when I didn’t understand why, I saw that 4×4 do some impressive things and get up some’ impossible’ slopes and out of some ‘hopeless’ situations. If I’d thought of myself as ‘knowing it all’ I don’t think we’d have had quite so exhilarating and positive a trip.
That echoes the relationship that we were created to have with God.
In Psalm 23 God is described as a shepherd who reliably leads his flock to good grass and quiet streams; a shepherd who has a rod and staff to protect his flock, even when they travel through the dark valley of the shadow of death. He is our creator. We are his creatures. He is the one best equipped to be calling the shots and giving the directions. Sometimes God calls on us to do things that seem counter-intuitive or different to what everyone else thinks. But that is because he is greater, bigger and wiser than us and so he sees things better than we do.
As I travel through life, am I doing it the ‘know it all’ way, or am I treating God as ‘the good shepherd’?