Riding Shotgun

Toward the end of last week, a scare landed my wife in the ER while I was out of town. Thankfully, she only had a case of severe vertigo and I was able to get home after a few hours in the car. However, the drive felt like an eternity. I didn’t have any music with me and after chatting with a few people on the phone, it seemed as if the mileage marker was moving in reverse. I had a lot of silence ahead of me. While I knew it was nothing life-threatening, after a stressful week, and being away from my family, my mind was on overload. Then, it started raining. As if it wasn’t enough that I was tired, and it was dark and quiet, now I couldn’t see. Eventually, I found a rest stop and pulled over. I took a couple of deep breaths and, in the dark of the night and for the first time that day, asked God simply to calm my thoughts. I looked up and on my radio dashboard, the title of the muted song read, “Where have you been?” Typical me, my first thought was “Yeah, where have you been God?” Thankfully, I quickly realized, I had it in reverse. He was asking me. The silence went from a barrier in my journey, to a catalyst. It took me from all the “what if’s” to the “thank you’s.” Hopefully, regardless of what my next trip might look like, I’ll invite him sooner.