Have you ever wondered how Google is able to know how much traffic there is around you? Like how you can open up your app and see the green, yellow, or red lines on the route you are trying to take to get to the closest place that serves chips and salsa?
It’s crazy how it works. They’re able to collect data from the GPS of phones that are on the road and tell if they are moving at a fast rate, making abnormally frequent stops, or just not moving. So, when there are traffic jams, they are able to tell, based on the amount of people with GPS-enabled phones sitting on the road, what traffic is like. And after they collect that data, they are able to process it and update their maps with it. So when Google tells you how much traffic there is, what they are really telling you is how many other people are ahead of you. And when Google suggests that you take a different route, you trust them because they can see what you can’t, and they know what’s ahead.
The sad thing is, there are a lot of times when we trust Google Maps more than we trust Jesus.
Sunday at the Sunnyvale Campus, Paul McDill said something that I know but so often forget, especially in turbulent times. He said, “If there’s ever a time we should follow {Jesus} closely, it’s in times of turbulence, because he is in control, and he’s been there.” I think that in turbulent times, it’s so easy for us to go into survival mode and try to figure out what we are going to do next all on our own. We try to develop a plan, a back-up plan, and a back-up back-up plan. And while we plan and strategize and problem solve, what we are actually doing is trying to predict what’s going to happen. And the crazy thing is that we are trying to predict the future when we have no idea what the future holds. We end up putting trust in ourselves, as opposed to putting trust in Jesus. We try to decide for ourselves what is best instead of turning to the one who knows what’s best. We try to navigate the future with what we know in the present, as opposed to trusting in the one who knows what the future holds. We don’t know how our season of turbulence will end, but we have a God who does. And that God tells us to cast that worry and fear upon him.
So today, what are you going through? What are you holding on to? What makes you worry, and what causes you to fear? It’s time to stop holding on to all of that yourself. It’s time to let go and trust that God is in control, no matter how out of control your life seems.
Because if there’s ever a time we should follow Jesus closely, it’s in times of turbulence, because he is in control, he’s been where we are, and he knows how it ends.