My father-in-law was driving on a southbound road. A truck driver quickly drove up behind him, honked a couple times and passed him. He pulled off not far down the road, and when my father-in-law was stopped beside him, he asked, “How do I go north from here? This is Highway 17 South, and I want to be on Highway 17 North. How do I do that?”

Why do we make turning around so difficult? If we’re headed in a direction we’re not supposed to be headed in, we can turn around. We might have to go out of our way a bit, but as far as I know, there are no roads that once on, there are absolutely no ways – ever – to get turned around in the opposite direction.

I think people sometimes know they’re going in the wrong direction, so they get off one road and instead of re-entering the same road but in the opposite direction, they try to maneuver all kinds of other, lesser known roads. They were going in the wrong direction in the first place and just end up more lost instead of simply turning around or looping around an overpass.

Whether you’ve gone down paths you know you shouldn’t have gone down, or someone – or perhaps a GPS – gave you faulty directions so that you ended up someplace you didn’t intend, you have a choice to either continue down the wrong path or turn around to get on the right path.

I typically don’t use a GPS while driving. I see the benefit, but because I don’t get turned around easily, I haven’t had much of a need for one. However, one of my friends had just added GPS to her phone when we were travelling in California several years ago. She was so excited about using Gidget, as we named her, that I decided to appease her and listen to Gidget…with an occasional glance at my own directions. Gidget did fairly well until I turned into a shopping area instead of waiting for the next, correct turn. Not only did she continually “recalculate” and urge me to take the next available U-turn, but she cackled at me. It was an evil cackle. I probably shorted her system because of all the turning I was doing through the parking lot just to test her abilities, but it sounded like a haughty cackle, as if she was spitting in my face. Of course, it only made my friend and I laugh harder.

We got back on track, and I was beginning to rely solely on Gidget, no longer paying attention to my own directions, when she suddenly turned off. Gidget went dark, and the last thing we’d heard was an upcoming turn. Neither of us was sure what road we were supposed to turn onto, but we knew we’d miss it if Gidget didn’t turn on quickly. I was not happy with Gidget. (We figured out later that it was not Gidget’s fault. My friend had scheduled her phone to turn off automatically at 11 p.m. each night and forgot that meant it would turn off at 9 p.m. while we were in California!)

While I was in a temporary panic because I thought we might miss out turn, I realized, “So what!” I could pull off anytime. I wasn’t a victim of the road I was on. Even if I missed the turn, I could turn around. A temporary delay didn’t mean I’d be lost for days or even hours. I might have a slight detour, but I could still find a route to take me to where I needed to go.

God doesn’t leave you without an available route. He doesn’t ever set you up to be lost. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6, KJV)

Even when you’re going south and should be going north, he’ll give you the option to turn around.