A couple weeks ago I went with our church to teen camp in Florida. This year we took more than 30 young people! It was exciting to need both a bus and a van to transport everyone.

My friend Kim and I were assigned to the second vehicle, the van. Our objective was simple: follow that bus.

However, that’s not as simple as it might seem. This was the sixth year that Kim and I have driven together in the follow vehicle, and we’ve learned that it takes a lot of attention to follow our youth pastor, especially on the way there when we drive through the night.

There’s no easy route between Missouri and Florida, so there are a lot of turns, and sometimes it feels like GPS routes us a different way each time we go. Our youth pastor is one of the best men I know, but he’s not the easiest driver to follow. You have to be on alert because he might take an unexpected turn without a lot of warning. Especially this year, when we discovered after we were underway that the bus’s left turn signal was out. At any moment a left turn might be imminent and he would have no way to tell us.

Kim and I have learned a few tricks from all these years of following him on the trip. The main one: Keep your eyes on the lead vehicle. Be ready to move when he moves, and stay in the same lane as much as possible. Although we both know the basic way to Florida and we have GPS on our own phones, we lay aside whatever we think we know and focus only on following the lead vehicle so we don’t get separated.

If he misses a turn, we sail on past it with him. If he unexpectedly pulls into a gas station, we brake and pull in behind.

Sometimes he asks us questions while we’re stretching our legs or waiting in line to use the restroom. “Did you notice the speed limit went up on that road?”

Um, no. I never once looked for the speed limit because all I was watching was the back of the bus.

At the next stop he might say, “Did you see that funny church sign a few miles ago?”

No, definitely not. All I’m watching is the back of the bus. That’s it. If you speed up, I speed up. If you slow down, I slow down and go into high alert. That’s everything—and the only thing—I know about the trip.

On the journey of life, we have a Guide to lead the way. He never takes wrong turns even though He often chooses winding roads. His turn signals never fail, though sometimes they may take us by surprise. Sometimes He goes straight past side roads that we thought we would take. Sometimes it feels like He’s parked us on a stop for way too long. Other times it might feel too short.

Sometimes He takes us to places we never wanted to go. At other times He leads us down the road we always desired to drive on.

There’s lots of distractions and opinions on the side of the road, and we can get in our own way if we want to take over as lead vehicle or don’t want to follow when He chooses a new path. He may always be right, but following isn’t always easy.

He knows the best way to get us to our destination. He wants us to keep our eyes on Him, to stay close so we do not get separated. Can we lay aside what we think we know and follow Him with single-minded determination, ready for Him to move?

He loves us so much. Can we rest in His love, in knowing that this road trip is at the right pace and in the right timing to get to all the stops that we’ll see are just perfect of us in the end?

It’s a challenge. But it’s a worthy one. Follow that bus.

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Image by Lena Svensson from Pixabay