The Lord Watches Over the Sojourner

The odometer on my little truck is coming up on 172,777 miles. While a seemingly inconsequential milestone, it will mark 125,000 miles that I have traveled since the purchase of my 2001 Dodge Dakota 3 ½ years ago. Some quick arithmetic reveals that I am averaging 35,700 miles of travel per year.

My truck and I have been as far east as Riverhead, Long Island, NY; as far west as Beaver Falls, PA; as far north as Cheektowaga, NY; and as far south as Virginia Beach, VA.

I am having a difficult time choosing an average speed for my total time traveled calculations. Somewhere between 30 miles per hour and 60 mph, so for round number’s sake, I will assume that I have traveled an average speed of 45 miles an hour throughout the past 3 ½ years.

In light of the above, consider the below:

Hours Behind the Wheel: 2,777 hours, 40 minutes
Days Behind the Wheel: 115.7 days
Weeks Behind the Wheel: 16.5 weeks
Years Behind the Wheel: 0.32 years

All said, I have spent 9.1 % of the last 3 ½ years of my life behind the wheel of my truck!

How good is my Heavenly Father to have preserved me through all this! And yet how often do I neglect to meditate upon my dependency for God’s care in even ordinary aspects of life? My little truck has been free from any trouble worse than a persistently on-again-off-again “Check Engine” light, and yet how unfaithful I am to remember my Lord in thanksgiving for granting me a reliable vehicle.

My heart should be more often in tune with Psalm 121, which reads:

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”