It was about 4:30 a.m. on Thursday , March 19th - I had left packing till the last minute (again) and I was frantically moving from my bathroom to bedroom to living room throwing things in my suitcase for a trip to Houston. As I carried the contents of an overflowing toileteries bag from my bathroom to my suitcase in the living room I kept walking past an unopened bottle of excedrin migraine on my dresser and a still small voice nudged me to pack the excedrin , but I talked myself out of it because "well, I have not had a migraine episode in months - so I'll be fine". I finished packing and headed off to Houston leaving the bottle on my dresser.
When I picked up my rental car at the Houston airport later that day - the employee at the rental car company suggested I get the insurance coverage and I dismissed her. As we completed the walkthrough of the car - again that nudging, that still small voice said get the insurance, I contemplated it and even asked the employee about the cost but decided against getting insurance.
Friday morning - I woke up with a migraine, fever, nausea combo - I have not felt that terrible since I was about 13 - after hours writhing in pain I asked the hotel conceige to get me a ride to the nearest pharmacy where the pharmacist recommended (you guessed it), excedrin migraine. She said my symptoms suggested the signs of a migraine - Are you kidding me ? the same excedrine migraine I passed up at home. I picked it up, popped two pills and within a few hours I was starting to feel better and another hour later - nausea, fever was gone.
Same day about 6 p.m. , I felt good enough to meet up with my aunt to catch up. After a few hours at her place, I decided to head out to catch with some Houston based friends - as I backed out of my parking spot - I turned the steering a moment too soon and the front drivers' side got quite dented by the wall. Immediately, I remembered the still small voice that nudged me to get the insurance coverage. I was livid (at myself), but just as quickly got a learning moment - twice in one day God spoke to me and twice I ignore the voice and less than 24 hours later - I was faced with two situations in which if I had listened I would have spared myself some stress and a substantial amount of money paid to the rental car company to repair the damage.
I was thinking about these events last week as I entered my CC number to pay the cost to repair the damages to the rental car. I always ask the lord to lead, but how often do I follow what he says for me to do. A lot of us are asking God to lead us and guide us and direct us , but how many of us are actually following his lead. When he gives us direction - do we follow or ignore? If you are like me - its probably the latter. Why is that?
I think it is part pride and part not fully knowing the voice of God (or trusting that we have heard from him) - I want to believe most of us fall into the latter. When he speaks to us , we are unsure if he is the one speaking so we ignore what he says and do our own thing. Then we complain that we got no direction from him and when things go sideways we blame him, but the truth is - he is speaking, leading, directing, but we are not following. What good is having a GPS navigation if you don't follow the directions and can you really blame the maker if you choose not follow the directions and get lost - I think not.
I / we need to start learning how to hear from God. Stop blaming God when things go sideways in our lives. Instead, let's be introspective, search ourselves - did God really not guide us or give us direction or Is it that we are not following directions he gives us.
I am reminded of the wedding feast - Mary said - "whatever he tells you to do, do it" - Are we doing what he tells us to do in our day to day ? Are we doing what he tells us to do in our area of calling? When he leads, do we listen and follow?
We should start learning to know his voice and when he says, pack that bottle of excedrin migraine - go ahead and just do it !