“The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’ But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.” (Jonah 1:1-3a NIV)

Recently, one of my dogs, Denver, had a veterinarian appointment. Normally, he rides in the truck bed under the canopy. But on this day, he was going to have to ride in the passenger front seat, something that he had never done before.

On the two-hour trip to Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, and back, he did great. He enjoyed looking out the window or curling up on the seat for a nap.

However, my troubles began after his appointment when I had various stores to visit. Every time I came back to the truck, Denver would be in the driver’s seat — not an unusual thing for a dog to do, as most of them love to take over that seat once their owner has vacated. The problem was that Denver was not willing to give my seat back to me when I wanted to get into the truck. No amount of encouragement moved him one inch toward the passenger seat.

Denver is a big guy, approximately ninety pounds, so pushing him out of the way just wasn’t working. I went around to the passenger side, opened the door, and convinced him to move onto his own seat. Great! I thought, until I walked back around to the driver’s side and found him once again sitting in my seat.

Running around the truck from one side to the other went on for longer than I would have liked, before he finally got the message and stayed put. Seeing as I had four or five shops that I had to run into, and this scenario was repeated at each one, I was, to say the least, a little annoyed with him by the time the trip was over.

Looking back upon the experience, however, I can’t help but laugh, especially when I consider that my two granddaughters, sitting in the back seat, found the whole thing hysterically funny and entertaining.

Likewise, I wonder if God looks down and finds us hysterically funny and entertaining, every time when we, His people, jump into the driver’s seat of our lives, just as Jonah did. Examples are when we are waiting for an answer to prayer and it is simply not happening, or when we don’t like the way things are going.

Yet, when we take the driver’s seat, things usually don’t end up being very funny or entertaining for us. Jonah ended up being swallowed by the big fish that God had prepared for him, before he was willing to concede the driver’s seat of his life back to God.

If only he had stayed out of the driver’s seat and allowed God to get him to the right destination in the first place, so much pain and so many problems could have been avoided.

How about you? Who’s in the driver’s seat of your life today? You or God?

Prayer: Father God, help us to allow You to be in the driver’s seat of our lives, today and every day, so that we might end up, as quickly and pleasantly as possible, at the destination that You have planned for us, the one which You know is best for us and Your kingdom. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.

Copyright © 2022, by Lynne Phipps <lynnephippsatlin@gmail.com>, first published on the PresbyCan Daily Devotional presbycan.ca .
Atlin, British Columbia, Canada

Reprinted from PresbyCan with author’s permission