I missed my exit last week because I was arguing with the GPS.
I’d like to say, not out loud, but, I was by myself and I was talking to a map!
Jesus Take the Wheel?
Nah!
Most of us say we want guidance until guidance suggests a route we did not personally approve of, or did not see coming.
We like the idea of surrender. It’s humbling. It makes us feel like we’re doing the right thing. It’s just that we just prefer surrender with final editing rights.
Stopping the steering does not mean we become passive. That is the little lie we tell ourselves because it sounds responsible. “I’m just being wise.”
Maybe.
Or maybe we are terrified that if we stop gripping everything so tightly, we will discover our control was mostly decorative anyway.
That is irritating.
I have spent a generous portion of my life pretending the steering wheel was mine. My plans. My timing. My preferred outcomes. My impressive little map with all the detours removed.
Then life, would interrupt. A failed business. A broken relationship. A silence from God that felt less like peace and more like poor customer service.
What happens when we stop steering?
Sometimes nothing. At least nothing visible.
No angel choir. No cloud formation spelling “Good job, Wayne.” Just the uncomfortable quiet of not grabbing the wheel back after three minutes.
And then something starts to loosen.
Not the circumstances, necessarily.
Me.
The clenched thing in my chest. The need to explain myself. The exhausting belief that everything depends on my constant management and input. I begin to notice that surrender is not losing direction. It is admitting maybe, I was never qualified to be my own savior, or others!
Ouch!
God does not seem particularly interested in helping me become more impressive. Annoying, really. He seems far more committed to making me more obedient, more honest, more useful, more Christlike. Which sounds beautiful until He starts with my ego.
Maybe stopping the steering is not about getting somewhere easier.
Maybe it is about becoming someone who can be trusted when the road disappears.
When life throws you a detour.
Shift/Insight
The shift is from control to trust. Not lazy trust. Not spiritual-sounding avoidance.
Real trust. The kind that releases the outcome without abandoning responsibility.
Today’s Nudge
Find one thing today you keep trying to force. Pause. Name it. Pray over it. Then take the next honest step without demanding the whole map.
Faith Connection
Jesus never asked us to admire surrender.
He asked us to follow.
And following means someone else is leading.