The one where Jesus took the Wheel

I recently made it home from a VERY long drive. Due to Covid, my daughter has been attending college from home online for the last year and a half. This season, they confirmed they would be having classes back on campus again so we loaded up her college type belongings and drove from GA to MN to get her all settled and moved into campus. It wasn't a bad drive at all and it somehow went sooo fast! Perhaps it was the alphabet game, the cow game, or the great company? Probably all three!

We got everything out of storage and all set up in her space for the upcoming year. Quicker than a blink, the day arrived for me to depart. As hard as it was to leave, I know she is making memories and is going to have the best year yet. It's her senior year in college after all. I pulled my heart together and left her in safe hands. Obviously, I cannot deny there were tears as I drove away.

Many of you probably do not know that I have huge anxiety when it comes to driving. Some people pass trucks along the road with no issue, I tend to see the trucks sandwiching me on the road every time. If you pull up behind a truck hauling cars? I see the cars coming off the trailer and smashing into me... and so on. I think you get the idea here. When my daughter was with me, she was able to reassure me that the lanes were clear or that I was good to switch lanes and was an excellent co-pilot. This time I was driving solo. I've done it before and I'm sure I'll do it again, but for me, it is a real struggle. Every mile is a huge accomplishment.

2 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline."

I prayed constantly and had a Christian station playing on repeat on my Pandora. I was also dealing with leaving my daughter and being a gazillion miles away from her once again. Yes, I know she will be fine. She's an amazing young adult with a great head on her shoulders. It's just still a really long way away and a transition. Those of you who know, you know.

As I was driving and making my way through Minneapolis (the really big cities are my biggest struggle), I felt Jesus so strong sitting right next to me. All the sudden a peace washed over me and I wasn't even nervous or anxious at all. I truly cannot explain it. So I just said, thank you for riding with me Jesus. It turns out, I was not driving solo at all. I knew he was next to me and frankly, I'm quite confident Jesus literally grabbed the wheel more than once. I'm the first to admit driving is not one of my best skills.

2 Cor 4:8-9 "We are pressed on every side by troubles, be we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God."

I hit Wisconsin and that was a tough state emotionally. My daughter loved going through Wisconsin and when we were playing the cow game, she gained several herds of cattle there. I saw her cows and became emotional once again. I heard plain as day - Jesus said clear as a bell - "Don't you trust me? I have her in my hands, just trust in me." I quickly pulled myself together because Jesus was truly right and I do trust Him wholeheartedly.

Hebrews 11:1 "Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see."

Another fun fact, I get night blindness so I was trying to get to my hotel in Illinois before dark but did not quite make it. I hit Illinois at about 9:00 at night and still had about an hour into the state to get through. There was construction. Like, not just a little construction, a LOT of construction - at night - when I cannot see. From what I could tell, an entire bridge was demolished and we were driving over this little trail bridge right above all the mess of it. Not being able to see well was maybe a blessing in this instance. I was behind a semi - my nemesis on the roads - and it ended up guiding me out of the construction. I just followed the tail lights and let them lead the way. When I finally got to my hotel, I only had 6 hours to sleep. I prayed heavily for a supernatural sleep because I really needed to get up and get going by 5 am to get home before dark.

In the morning I woke up and felt SO REFRESHED! How does a night owl who doesn't do mornings feel refreshed at 5 am after only 6 hours of sleep and 16 hours of driving the previous day? Supernatural sleep - thank you Jesus!

I headed out and made it through Illinois. Driving from KY into TN I hit rain - like the rain you cannot see in front of you in. The kind of rain that makes you slide off the road if you go too fast. Again, I followed a semi. Weird right? I just followed those lovely tail lights once again at the same speed it was going and eventually drove out of the rain.

I was still listening to the Christian radio station on my Pandora and noticed a song about calming anxiety kept playing a LOT in the last two days. Thank you Jesus for your calming methods. He was truly in control of this road trip and sat right next to me the whole time.

Atlanta - I truly dislike driving through Atlanta. It is the worst. I pulled through at about 7:00 PM. You would expect a lot of traffic at 7 PM in Atlanta but it was like most of the roads were clear somehow AND I had a weird calm in my spirit - maybe exhaustion? Maybe, but I think it was my co-pilot. He was still in charge of the roads. I pulled into my driveway and made it home before dark. I was greeted happily with this beautiful rainbow right when I pulled in. Thank you Jesus for safely bringing me home and for the very welcoming and beautiful rainbow....

2 Cor 4:16-18 "That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever."