Redirection

Construction began, again, this week on the biggest intersection b/t our house and the kids' Montessori school & our church. *Sigh* We moved here January a year ago. Just in time for us to get our driving routes & routines set, nine months of construction began on this same intersection last March. (It involves a 4-lane road & a bridge; scheduled to be done in 2011!) We had to completely redirect our paths. Instead of a straight shot on a major road with only one turn out of our sub, the drive to school morphed into a twice-as-long trek through winding neighborhoods at 25 mph. The really irritating part is that I make this trip at least 3 times a day, (dropping them off, picking Annelise up at noon, and then Will at 2.)

I felt the most remarkable freedom when this main intersection reopened in November! Suddenly, I had all this extra time that I had been spending in transit. I could get everywhere so much faster! Getting to church was a big difference, too; I'm the coordinator of my MOPS group & sing on Praise Team, so I'm there more than just Sunday mornings.

But apparently, it was only to be open for a season, (not that winter is over here, with snow still everywhere.) This week, I feel like my wings have been clipped, again. We're off the main road and once more relegated to the winding back streets. I have to build more travel time back into our daily schedule...and more patience back into my mindset. I even tried to navigate directly through the construction this afternoon after picking up Will in a desperate attempt to hang onto my old route. (It was in vain - longer than even those irritating back streets.)

As I sat there in traffic, inching forward every three minutes, it hit me how much this parallels life, especially ours right now as we pray for new job opportunities for my husband. We can be on a path that we love, but when God needs to fix some things, He has to redirect us. The circuitous route on which He places us can feel less than ideal, but He'll never give us more than we can bear. He also loves to bless us and give us a joyful reprieve when appropriate, but He won't give up until His construction is finished. Our lives can feel tedious when it seems like we're driving in circles, stuck in a roundabout waiting on God. Sometimes we even try to take matters into our own hands and drive back through the junk, even when we know it's not going to be very productive. The day is coming, though, when the current construction project will be complete, and we can revel in the new with a deeper appreciation for it than we would have ever had before.