Warning Signs

The other day I was driving to an appointment. As usual, I left just enough driving time to get there. Driving up to turn onto a familiar road, a big orange "Detour" sign stared me in the face.

Hmm.

I proceeded.

The next big orange sign said "Road Closed Ahead."

Here I was faced with a choice. (Or at least I thought I was.)

I chose to continue on the path of the (supposedly) closed road. As if an orange sign wasn't enough.

But the road has never been closed before. Why would it be now? I knew there was construction on a nearby road, but not this one. I was just there and everything was fine.

So I barreled on ahead, casting furtive glances at my dashboard clock as time ticked on, feeling my blood pressure rise. I began to speed up as I mentally counted the stop lights left until I reached my destination.

So here I was, racing full steam ahead...on a (supposedly) closed road.

At this point, I would like to interject and say I hope I'm not the only one who would do/has done this. But in all reality, I probably am. And probably should be.

Anyway, so back to wildly spinning tires and my stupidity. I would periodically stretch my neck to see if I could actually lay eyes on anything resembling a closed road. Everything looked like it always had, save the periodic large orange sign stating "Road Closed in Such-and-Such feet." Those were obviously new to the scenery.

But apparently not enough to deter my current confidence in achieving a through route on said (supposedly) closed road.

I thought I'd just made it, one more curve and I'd be turning onto another road, which I assumed would also not be closed.

Then lo and behold, the road...was...closed.

At the very end, right where I needed to turn. There was about a ten foot stretch where no road existed. Literally, there was no road.

Welp. Any good person would chuckle, turn around and patiently take another route to her destination, right?

Wrong.

I promptly did a three-point turn in the non-closed part of the road and proceeded to race aaaaall the way back to the spot in which I first saw the "Detour" sign. And I was fuming. At myself. At the construction workers. At the stupid over-sized sign that tried to warn me.

I didn't feel very wise in that moment. Nor did I feel very proud as I picked up my phone and called the office to notify them of my delay.

As my swollen pride quickly turned into sheepish humility, I was reminded of words I had read not even hours before from the 21st chapter of Proverbs (NIV):

The proud and arrogant man - "Mocker" is his name; he behaves with overweening pride." (vs. 24)

and...

There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord. (vs. 30)

Ouch.

I was thankful no one but God had seen my folly. I am (gratefully) living proof He gives countless second chances. (Check out Rend Collective Experiment's "Second Chance")

And so today, when I was headed to the very same office, I chose not to head down the (actually) closed road.

And it got me thinking, how often in my life or daily routine do I do something I've done a million times before just because I've done it a million times before and all the while ignore the warning signs that maybe, just maybe I'm supposed to do something different???