Directions

     "Please! Don't ask me to stop while I am driving to ask for directions!" he exclaimed as the car motored past yet another highway exit. " You don't know where you are going, do you?" Alice chided him. "Just keep your silly kids quiet so I can concentrate on what off ramp to take" Fred exhausted, was mumbling and feeling a little like maybe Alice was right, he was lost. It was now 4:30 pm and the night was falling quicker than usual, daylight savings time had now come and gone. The shadows of the freeway signs were stretching out into long ghosts of figures and the kids were getting more and more restless, Fred too was getting mighty hungry. "Alright, I'll pull over at the next exit, we can grab some fast food, stretch our legs and I'll ask for directions" Fred reluctantly gave into Alice's request and with a crack in his usually confident voice heralded the hoisting of the white flag and an early surrender.
     Let let me ask you a question. When you buy something from a department store and it needs some assembly do you first pour a cup of coffee, sit down with your reading glasses on and pour over the directions until you completely understand the order of assembly? These instructions or directions were left in the bottom of the box printed neatly on a piece of white paper sometimes in seven different languages.  No! Why would you do something so silly like that after all you are a man! Who is fully capable of assembling anything, anyone  can throw  in your lap. Hey, and even if you do end up with some extra parts maybe they were included by a company employee who was just bored stiff with his job and wanted to mess with you. Or possibly the extra parts were just a manufacturers oversight.
     So there you are it's Christmas Eve, the fireplace is glowing seven times hotter than hot, it is 11:59 pm and you have several presents hidden in the basement that you have been assured by your wife only need some minor assembly. Now someone has thoughtfully laid out a plate of freshly baked, hot chocolate chip cookies and a glass of ice cold milk that takes you less than a minute to down. Feeling like super dad you soar over and rip open  the  box that looks way too small to contain a bicycle. Now you are thinking "How hard can this really be?" and then you remember not wanting to pay the extra $ 25.00 dollars to have the cocky, teenage, Christmas bike builder assemble it for you. After all you are a man and completely capable of completing the task. A decision that would turn out to be your first mistake but not your last. It is now 12:30 am the cookies and milk didn't settle as well as you would have liked when you remember turning 48 last year and receiving a lactose intolerant badge for your birthday.
     The clock begins to click and tick off the minutes to 2:00 am as you feel blood coursing through your veins and hear drops of perspiration dripping from your brow. As you wipe your forehead, you reach for the wrench you will need to align and tighten what you think is the last nut on the bicycle's back wheel.You notice a small, zip locked, plastic bag sitting on the floor by the empty bike box. The baggie contains some small parts, your eyes are not what they use to be but the large bright orange letters on the label clearly say "Important Brake Parts...Safety spring must be installed prior to mounting the back wheel." Your life flashes before your eyes, you can feel an irregular heart rhythm and the cookies are on their way up!
     The older I get I now see how important it is to follow directions. Step by step, from 1 to 2 and then on to 3 its an order of operation that clearly works and was designed to save time and energy from having to redo and repeat a task. You know, our lives can be just like that. We have been given much freedom to be sure but God has a plan for our lives that when followed step by step it will help us from repeating difficult and often  painful situations. If we choose not to follow God's directions which He  has carefully outlined in His book then we have to accept the consequences of broken dreams and a box full of extra parts. Also, I have  a couple of Christmas season suggestions: Pay the $25.00 bucks to have the bicycle assembled for you, don't drink the glass of milk and read your bible.