Taking a road trip with our family is kind of like mobilizing a military campaign. There is food: we’re still searching for that perfect car snack that makes no crumbs, cannot melt, won’t make people hyper, and is unspillable. There are clothes: if you count figuring out something presentable to wear on the way and pajamas, just one overnight includes 21 shirts, 14 pairs of underwear, and 28 socks. There are medical considerations: we pretty much never leave home without Bandaids, even to go to the grocery store. There are headcounts: we often bring friends along or leave a kid behind, usually intentionally, which adds an element of excitement. There is the dog. And the schedule. And that doesn’t even count whatever it is we’re doing when we get where we’re going. All in all, traveling is an endeavor that requires foresight and intention.

Recently, we set out on a trip we’d been planning for weeks. We got about 40 miles down the road with the kids happily watching DVDs in the back, when the eight-year-old suddenly shouted, “Hey, where are we going anyway?”

I feel like parenting and life in general can kind of get like that sometimes. Each person in my house and in the big world, is made for a purpose and set on the road to eternity. The world puts a lot of pressures and expectations on families, think of them as billboards with conflicting messages: “Good people give money to charity!” and “Pay whatever it takes for your kids to be their best!” “Get a job, and give it your full potential!” and “Be all there for your kids!”

It’s hard to know which voices to follow. More simply, I tend to get wrapped up in the everyday details of deciding whether we’ll eat chili or tacos on Wednesday, do soccer or swim for third grade, pay more for a sturdy sofa or not fret because it probably won’t survive no matter how much we pay. I can just lose focus and forget where it is I’m going anyway.

When I find myself lost and overwhelmed, stuck at a metaphorical highway rest area, unsure where to go with my fuel running low, I try to remember where I’m going by getting back to basics.

First, I am made to have a relationship with God. The Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” For all of us, when we come into relationship with God through His Son, we come into the joy of doing what we were created to do, like a bird learning to fly or a horse learning to run. The end destination becomes clear (John 3:16), and God amazingly promises that He will give His Spirit to guide and protect us on the way (John 14:25-26).

Second, I am made to follow His Word. The Bible is the one completely reliable map we have to show us the way through life. If we believe the Bible and follow it as we travel, it has lots of practical guidelines for keeping on the right road. It also tells us that we can’t actually do all that good stuff (which most of us who’ve tried it have figured out) and that we keep driving into ditches, even when we know they’re there. Jesus had to die for us to come to God. There was no other way. The Bible contains both the shining Golden Path and the humble acknowledgment that we’re all lost in the dark trying to stay on it, depending on Christ every day to give us enough light for each turning along the way (Psalm 119:105).

Third, I am made to be faithful where I am right now. It can be hard to remember, but each of us is born into the right country, the right family, the right generation, with the right gifts to accomplish what God has called us to do on our journey to Him. We each live in a certain place, and in the Bible, God called His people to pray for the city where they lived and to “seek the peace and prosperity of it” (Jeremiah 29:7,10-11). We each have certain people around us to whom we are uniquely positioned to minister. If you’re a mom or dad of young children, for example, there is probably no one else in the world who knows better how to pray for your children than you do. In addition to that, every one of us already has certain talents, things we do well, things we love to do. The Bible says those talents are gifts we’re supposed to use to invest in God’s kingdom (Matthew 25:24-30). Practically speaking, I think being faithful where we are often means just taking the next step we know we’re supposed to take on the road. Maybe it’s closing down this blog and folding that stack of laundry so your people can be blessed by having something to wear tomorrow. (Oh, wait. That’s mine.) Maybe it’s taking a class or painting a picture or volunteering or talking to your neighbor. Maybe it’s praying for direction. It means developing and using the talents and opportunities we have been given to serve God obediently and courageously with each next step.

Finally, I am made to rely on God to show me where to go. Sometimes the road forks, and I need to take one way or another. But I can’t see around the next bends to know where each option leads. A lot of decisions, like whom to marry or how to find that person or where to live or which job to take, are not outlined in clear detail in the Bible, and I think that is often part of God’s design to keep our hearts coming back in prayer to Him. The road that lead us to our current home in Mt. Pleasant, SC, wound through prayers and tragedy and through some good stories for another blog post. God promises to guide us (Isaiah 30:21) and give us wisdom (James 1:5), telling us which way to turn along the road to Him.

Some of us are hurtling down the road to eternity at 80 mph, and it can get pretty foggy and slick and confusing along the way. The reality is that we have a goal, a map, and guide for the next steps and for the next turnings. Christ is the key: both the way we “live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28) and where it is we’re going anyway.

“So I will drive these roads in thunder and in rain
And I will sing your song at the top of my lungs
And I will praise you dear Lord in glory and in pain.
And I will follow you till this race is won
And I will drive these roads till this motor won’t run
And I will sing your song from sea to shining sea
And I will praise you Lord till your Kingdom comes
And I will follow were You lead.
Till there’s no more faith and no more hope,
I’ll see your face and Lord I’ll know
There’s no more faith, there’s no more hope.
I’ll sing your praise and let them go…
Cause only love, Only Your love remains”
-Andrew Peterson

Ginger Blomberg