Saturday, May 31, 2008

Life is a Highway - Get to know the Master Engineer

In 1991 Tom Cochrane wrote the song "Life is a Highway", later popularized by its use in a car commercial. To the dismay of the advertising firm that linked the song with the car, I didn't remember which car it was until I looked it up on Wikipedia - Volvo...

Life is indeed like a highway. Lots of different terrain, different vistas, different vehicles, many destinations, different traveling companions.

For the past 20 months, I've been building a company that has developed software for road trip planning. It is hard to plan for all of the things you can come across on the road and the things that you want to find, but we've gotten a good start on it.

For the last 50 years, God has been laying out the plan for my life, sort of a microcosm of what he does on the grander scale as the Master Engineer of the "highway" of our lives.

It has been nothing short of amazing that as things seem the bleakest or I suffer disappointment at a particular turn of events, that right around the next corner is something so amazing that I couldn't have even imagined it for myself, let alone asked (or in the spiritual vernacular, prayed ) for it.

A dear friend reminded me yesterday of the scripture Romans 8:28 "All things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to his purpose". From a practical perspective, what that means is that I really don't have to worry and get all "spun up" about things that don't seem to be working out or fitting together. That is His job (not the worrying and "spun up" part..... the fitting together).

Every time I see construction of bridges or freeways, I always wonder how the engineers can be assured that they are going to get it right and that everything will in fact connect and match up perfectly. But, invariably they do and it does.

I have a neighbor here in Tampa that works for the engineering company doing the new freeway construction near the airport and knowing the precision that he demands in his own life, and understanding his educational background and experience, it is easy to see how the new freeways emerging near Tampa airport are going to come together. His reputation and his firm's reputation depend on it.

Relationship with a builder can make all the difference in the belief that out of dirt and piles of struts, trucks filled with concrete, cranes and workers that by the end of the day are tired and dirty, can come a state of the art new transportation system for a growing area.

In my life, I am totally confident that the master engineer of all engineers will get it right and that ALL the dots will connect and match up perfectly in the end. Even though I can't see evidence today that it will all come together, looking back on my life, I know that it always does.

That my friends is faith. Believing in the thing that you don't see, can't see or that just seems totally implausible or even impossible.

I believe in miracles and wait eagerly for the next turn on the "highway" of life.

Chicke Fitzgerald