No race to win

This week I found myself having a fit of road rage. It was one of those times when driving home during peak traffic hour and a sea of red brakes lights are ahead of you. I thought it would be a brilliant idea to take the side service road instead of the highway, since it didn’t appear to be as backed up. Well, apparently there are hundreds of other drives who are just as brilliant as I am because as soon as I got on the service road, traffic backed up there as well. And, as these things always seem to happen, the highway suddenly opened up and traffic to my left (where I just was) started moving freely. So here I was, stuck on the service road, watching cars breeze by on the highway on the route I had just gotten off. I couldn’t get back off to access it and I found myself frustrated by this turn of events. That frustration started to seep deep into me as I inched along on the service road. I grew irritated with people driving too slow, others trying to merge on, or not merging soon enough. With each press of the brake, I grew more and more irritated. In the middle of my frustration, it hit me…why was I so upset that other people were moving faster than I was? Did it really matter? I was going home, to my own house. No one else was going there. It was waiting specifically for me and my family to arrive, not anyone else. Why did I care if other people arrived at their homes or their own destinations before I did? No matter how quickly they got home, it didn’t change the fact that my house was still there and waiting. I really had nothing to be frustrated about.

As my anger started to subside, I realized that this revelation I just had also applied to life! We often see people passing us by on the highway of life. They reach certain milestones and achievements before we  do…the dream job, spouse, kids, financial freedom, house,…the list goes on. As we watch people supposedly “surpass” where we are in life, we often grow frustrated, even jealous feeling like we should be where they are by now! Or there is somehow something wrong with us if our timeline doesn’t look like theirs.But the question that occurs to me is why does it matter when we get there? If God has a destiny ordained specifically for us, why does it matter if others reach their destiny before we do? It doesn’t change what He has aligned for us! Your achievements don’t threaten my path to success. The timing of you reaching your destiny doesn’t diminish the greatness of me reaching mine even if it takes me 5, 10 or 20 years longer than you!

Much like the commute home shouldn’t turn  into the NASCAR 500, neither should your walk to your destiny! Its not a race or chance to see who gets there first. Your destiny is ordained and waiting on you and only you! No matter if you take the main highway, or venture to the service road, you’ll still arrive there right on time.