When My GPS Preached at Me

I do not like blog posts that begin with a cute story and then suddenly make a quick turn saying, …”and that reminds me of how God says blah blah blah…” I promise not to bait and switch you, so I will come right out and say this post is about a funny little story that felt like God was talking to me.

On my recent trip to Oregon, my brother texted me, trying to make me laugh and I texted back that I was angry at the GPS in our rental car because she was not talking to us. It just went silent and I wanted the audio help.

Well, I discovered 100 miles later that she had stopped talking because she had already told us to stay on the same road for the next 100 miles. There was no need for her to add anything more. So I sent this text to my brother…

My brother’s answer was that my GPS sounded like a sermon illustration, and you can see my cranky response to that. I had just spent the weekend with my siblings and we talked about knowing what our next steps in life were supposed to be.

One week later I received the sweetest and most beautiful email from a blog and book reader in the UK. We had never met, but she wrote to thank me for my blog/book and spoke about how much they helped her in a difficult time. The next thing she wrote blew me away.

She felt God prompting her to write and encourage me to look into creating a children’s version of my book!

You guys, I have never mentioned that idea here, but I did work on writing a kid’s version of Walking Butterfly in 2020 for my preschool class at the time. I tested it out on them, but since it was an online video class, I had no way to know what the response was. Then I got overwhelmed with the publishing details and illustrations etc. and I gave up on the idea.

Is it crazy to think that God used our GPS and a lovely reader 5,000 miles away to give me a nudge? To remind me that I am not done writing? Does He do this? Maybe God already told me what to do 100 miles ago. Now what?

I will tell you this. The letter from far away definitely reminded me that I do still have a voice. It made me hungry to write again. It made me begin searching my heart for my true purpose.

And now, I suddenly have so many ideas popping up in my head. Usually, while I am swimming or floating in my pool and staring up at the trees behind our yard. Maybe I need to look into a water proof laptop.

I do not know how I will do it or what it will look like, but somehow I am going to work on creating a kid’s version of Walking Butterfly. Yikes, this is really scary to put out there! Being kinda vulnerable here.

I do not think it is true every time, but sometimes when we feel like God is silent, it could be that He already told us what to do and we haven’t done it. Or we may be dismissing some tiny messages from Him that seem too natural and not “written in the sky” type of words from above. I believe that He speaks to us in a million different ways. Most of them are small and could appear insignificant.

I am now asking Him to help me hear more clearly and to obey more quickly.

Join me?

Susie