I’m back from my 6 WEEK FLORIDA TRIP!  I traveled there & back by myself, by car & what I first off have to say is I DID IT!! I did it with God!!  It happened!!  What I said repeated times to others happened & even better than I planned!

How to Navigate Change is one point from my traveling experience! 

Florida is FILLED with majorly TALL & long bridges! My experience with them began while traveling to Florida & a friend suggested driving through & enjoying Savannah, Georgia rather than the crazy traffic of Atlanta! I said, “Sounds great!” as I envisioned Scarlett O’Hara in her fanciful gown with Rhett Butler in his fine, formal stud suit from Gone with The Wind strolling about the grounds of columned homes.  I pictured people of Southern hospitality serving me home-made peach pie with ice tea on platters.  Everything was going well in route there until the approach to downtown Savannah where my eyes enlarged like saucers & my heart skipped beats!! Ahead of me on the road stood a HUGE…HUGE bridge to get to Savannah! Suddenly, peaches didn’t matter…I only cared about my LIFE!
 
In those very moments, I was forced to decide. Was I going to turn around & forfeit seeing Savannah? What route would I take after backing out of this situation?  Or would I SOMEHOW go over it & survive? I was tired from driving a full day & my eyes were desperately searching for a spot to pull off & turn around. But at a certain point, I passed the chance to do so & headed up that bridge!

I drove up & over that bridge whispering, “Look at Jesus.  Look at Jesus” all the way up & over. I thought how are they gonna’ get me outta’ this place afterward, cuz’ I am NOT gonna’ wanna’ come back over THIS! They’ll have to helicopter me out!  Of course, that wouldn’t happen. No one would care; I’d just be stuck there while everyone else’s life proceeded on. Thankfully the way out Ft. Lauderdale afterward had a different route. Thank you, Jesus…I escaped.

Then, there were southeast Florida’s freeway transitions & big bridges. I saw Freeways up ahead that looked like they were driving up into the sky. Sometimes I didn’t have to go on them. Sometimes I looked ahead & thought Thank Heaven GPS isn’t taking me that way! And then GPS certainly did direct me onto that curving ramp up into the sky! The freeway transitions had inclines so steep & were so curved like a chocolate curl on top of a cake! I had anxiety of driving off the outer edge! I had to PUSH on my gas pedal the road was so angled! I felt like I was on a roller coaster slowly creeping up to the top of the first hill where all you see is empty sky ahead, ready to plummet down the other side at 90 mph!

 I had to decide, was I going to avoid these bridges & highways or take them on & have victory over them. What would I be willing to miss out on if I allowed them to be superior to the strength God is within me? I planned to do this trip for a year, was I going to miss seeing cities because of fear? Was it real fear? Would I feel shameful for avoiding them?

People were telling me there was a bridge I’d have to go over if I wanted to get to Tampa called the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Nothin’ sunny about this bridge in my opinion. Sadly, it is the #4 bridge in the country that people give up their life from.  I didn’t understand where it was going to come up in my travels, but it did.  I went out with friend one night from the area & thankfully she fearlessly drove us over it like a pro…in the rain! 

But there came the day when I had to conquer this 4.14-mile-long monster myself.  I took it on…I said, “If Jodie can do it, I can too!  And I hauled my car over that bridge declaring “Fear not for I am with you” & some other techniques too.
 
So, how do we navigate change in life…getting over the tall bridges or mountains to where we have to go for better & fulfillment?  For one thing, there can be illusions. You’re not going to drive off the edge during your travels or in your problems. There is pavement coming down the other side of that hill or tall problem. Sometimes we have the option to take the change slowly, but not always. 
 
I found these things helpful to overcome:

• Look at Jesus“ those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” (Isaiah 26:3)
• Pray in the Spirit
• Deep breathing
• Look at the immediate pavement before you, not so far ahead at all the possible difficulties & empty sky you’ll think you’ll fall off into.

Maybe you need a sister who has already crossed over the bridges you’re facing right now.  Maybe you need someone to drive over those bridges with you the first time while you build your confidence to do it again next time.  Maybe you need a Coach on this journey with you?
 
Part of my Life & Relationship coaching is for people who are in places feeling afraid, tired or uncertain of what to do next. They can’t see to the other side of the bridge that will land them safely onto land again.  They face such a high road ahead & don’t know how or can’t go up it.

• Has change came upon you?
• Are you completely out of your known element & don’t know what to do?
• Are you so bored or hopeless you want to create change, but can’t believe there’s anything positive ahead or know how to improve things?
  

That’s where I can come in.  I am here to coach you over & through situations.  I am a helper & a hope helper to help you get to the other side of problems…go over the bridges.  Navigate the bridges…navigate change to good land.
I’m so glad I went over all the bridges, conquered them & ENJOYED MY FULL VACATION & DID ALL GOD WANTED ME TO DO IN FLORIDA!
“But encourage one another daily” (Hebrews 3:13).

Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org

"When you can't trace His hand, trust His heart."  A friend shared this saying with me recently.  I had never heard of it, and love it.  It's actually a song title I've included below.  The lyrics say “our father knows what’s best for us.  His ways are not our own.”  I tend to often think of the word “best” as meaning I’m going to get vegetables with no butter or salt instead of a savory burger or dessert all the time.  And who wants that.  But Noah Webster says this about the word “best”: 

1.   Most good; having good qualities in the highest degree;
2.   Most advanced; most accurate;
3.   Most correct or complete;
4.   The best. … the utmost power; the strongest endeavor; the most, the highest perfection; 
5.   In the highest degree; beyond all other

      I see “best” is also “good” to me.  “According to your love remember me, for you are good, O Lord” (Psalm  25:7).  That’s His heart, His character.  So "when you can't see or trace His hand in your life and what He is doing, trust His heart.  That according to His character and His heart, He is preparing something that is best and wonderful for you.

My first bike I can recall in the early 70’s was a magenta (hot pink) girls bike called a Dragster.  It had a white with black pinstripe long, banana seat and high, upright handlebars that seem to be as high as a mountain now days.  After years of childhood fun and running the green lights and stopping at the stop signs I drew with chalk in front of my home in St. Clair Shores, it was retired to the family garage.  This  was the bike I even rode in the funeral procession of the deceased butterfly.

      That magenta bike from my loving parents birthed in me my favorite color of magenta, otherwise known as fuchsia.  Years later, I did not have a little girl to give it to.  My son would in no way ride a
magenta bike.  The feminine Dragster gathered rust.
 
      My father recently cleaned his garage and said, “Hey Dee!  You’ve got a bike in here.  It’s red.”  (Many men don’t know color).  “Maybe Cameron would like it.”  My father had been so busy through the
years; he didn’t realize it was in there (with all that other stuff).  But I knew.  My heart knew.  My first bike, my magenta bike, from my parents was in that garage.  I was waiting for something to do with it,
though I didn’t know what.  What did I ever have the time to do with it?  Was it really redeemable by anyone? Would this be considered a gift to anyone? Would anyone even be seen on a banana seat bike?  Could I really hoist it up on my upper living room walls like they do at Applebee’s?
 
     So I brought the bike home to free up my father’s garage.  While taking it out of my vehicle, my neighbor who restores things said someone would really go for something like that antique.  So off to Craigslist I sent my son to list it (he would receive 10% of the selling price).
 
      ‘Ryan’ contacted me with interest.  He regularly buys old bikes.  For several months we could not connect, but I was persistent.  At last, we met today.  Ryan pulled up in his gold, 1969 Mercury Monterey, which he restored.  He was the perfect person.  Then out came the dignified, pretty Dragster.  Pleasantly in his checkered shirt Ryan said, “I restore bikes like this all the time.  Ninety?”  “I’ll take it” I said.  “You’ll have to take a photo with me on it first.”  My heart really didn’t want to let that beautiful bike go.  But I consoled myself that I could let that part of me go and use the money to pay for the editor to work with me on my book.  “There is a time for everything”  (Ecclesiastes 3:1).
 
      Whatever you are holding onto, let it go.  God can give you something else in return.  What was, was for then.  Enjoy it for what it offered then.  Now allow another the blessing of having it.  Pass
it on.  Leave a heritage of any sort.  Make room for something else good God has for your life.  He is not done with you.

     I just got an email four hours past the time of the ‘changing of the bike’.  Ryan said the bike will probably be finished tomorrow, and I get pictures!  And my son gets $9!  How cool.
 
The banana seat bike…Can’t wait to call and tell my father. 
 4/29/10