A Path to Follow - The Journey

How many wrong turns do we have to make to end up where God wants us to be?

Have you ever thought that you were going the wrong way or on the wrong path and just couldn't understand why it was taking so long to get to where you wanted to be?

Maybe you were exactly where you were supposed to be. It's often said that God has His own time. And in order for us to connect with the right opportunity or the right person sometimes we need to take a bit of a detour. Or maybe there are lessons we still have to learn to prepare us to recognize the opportunity or to be recognized.

A case in point:

Joginder, my lovely wife, and I were returning from a 3 day trip. We had just left our host's home and were heading towards the Ben Franklin Bridge from Cherry Hill to Philly when she realized she had left her purse at their house. "There must be a reason," she said. "Yes, but we still have to get the purse back," I replied.

I tried their cell phone but it was switched off, and according to their receptionist they had not yet arrived at their office. So we ended up driving around for 20 minutes making a series of wrong turns before we finally found their motel. They laughed good-naturedly and we took the wife along with us. Another 20 minutes and we were back at the house. Joginder quickly found her purse, we offered a prayer at their shrine, and got back in the car, all the time thinking that there definitely had to be a reason. Joginder doesn't ever leave her purse behind.

On the way out the second time, I missed yet another turn and had to go 10 more minutes out of the way to find a place to make a U-turn. By this time, we were getting hungry from our adventure and decided to find a place to stop for pizza. Babaji directed us to a small roadside plaza and sure enough, there was a nice family owned pizza shop.

As we were ordering a tall man kept staring at me. Now it's not unusual for someone to stare at me. After all it's not every day that someone with a turban walks into your small town pizza shop. But he was really staring, mouth open, as if God were showing him something. He took his order and walked out the door.

When our pizza came a few minutes later, I went to the counter to pay. "That man already paid for your lunch." I couldn't believe it. I ran out the door and caught up with him halfway across the parking lot. "Did you just buy us lunch? You didn't have to do that." He wouldn't take money, so I shook his hand and gave him my card. He remarked that God was kind, and hurried off.

This morning an email showed up.

"Dear Ralph and Joginder,
I hope you enjoyed your lunch on Friday in Cherry Hill.

When I laid eyes on you my first impression in the Spirit was that you were a holy man of some type.
So I wanted to bless you and your wife in a small way.

If I was a Bill Gates I would have written out a Million Dollar check for you,
But I am not Bill Gates so it was pizza.

In the grand plan of things a slice of pizza given in love is better than a million dollars anyway."

So no doubt we had to make the right number of wrong turns just to reach that pizza shop in time for our new friend to buy us lunch. Just think how many wrong turns we've had to make and may still make to get where God wants us to be.