Never Mind

One of my favorite television commercials from a few years ago ended with the words never mind.


The commercial was an advertisement for a car, and I forget which one, which sort of defeats the point of the commercial! The thing that remember most about the commercial was the GPS voice.  You know that voice that tells you when to turn and how many miles to your destination and when you've arrived, and all sorts of other information. The point being made about the car is how fast it could go. The GPS would give directions about where to turn, but the driver has already made the turn.  The GPS chides the driver: You're ahead of me. Eventually the GPS is about to say Arriving at destination, but because the driver has already done that, the GPS says Never mind. You're already there.

I may not have quoted the dialogue exactly correctly, but that's the essence of what was said. And it's that last bit that got my attention. 

Never mind. I find myself wondering if God ever wants to say that to us. I find myself wondering how often in the course of our lives we jump ahead of God. How often we are too impatient to wait for His directions, and we jump out ahead of Him. We make turns before He gives the direction. We zoom on ahead of Him because we're not satisfied with the speed of our journey or the direction it is taking. We make decisions and expect God to follow after us obediently, rather than the other way around.

And I think it not unlikely that if God were like us, He might like to say to us Never mind. You're not listening anyway. Or He might like to say to us Never mind.  You've already arrived at your  destination. Too bad it isn't the one I had planned for you.

I'm thankful that God isn't like us. 

How I wish we would learn to be more like Him. And how I wish we [I] would be a better listeners.  Would follow His directions. Would wait for Him instead of trying to jump ahead.

So He wouldn't have to say Never mind.

"Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path."  (Psalm 27:11 ESV)