By The Rev. Heather Wright
This spring, my daughter, Alyse, and I went out to California for a mother-daughter road trip after she finished her first year of college. I wanted to have an adventure, a trip that neither of us would forget. We covered big cities and little towns, beaches, mountains and forests. My wish did come true, we did have an adventure on a trip we won’t forget… but not in the way I thought when planning it.
We drove the coastline of California northbound on Hwy 1. We had a long drive between the Hearst Castle to the Big Sur Lodge where we stayed overnight. This remote area is known for spectacular natural beauty, wilderness, waterfalls, cliffs, and views. In this section, highway 1 is a two-lane mountain road up the side of sheer cliffs with massive waves of the Pacific crashing against the rocky shore far below. It is narrow with a 45 mile stretch full of hairpin twists and turns with no margin for error. Did I mention that I am afraid of heights? I can feel the terror I felt even now as I type these words. Alyse was pale, with a serious expression. Later she admitted she was carsick much of the way but didn’t want to say anything.
This was likely because she could tell my knuckles were white on the wheel, I tried to avoid any eye contact with the horizon, the water below, the steep cliff beside me, or the tiny cars on the curving road climbing distant peaks ahead, which we would have to navigate soon. Just beyond avalanche warning signs, there were boulders next to our lane with occasional nets to catch falling stone. There were very few turnoffs. It dawned on me, “this is a disaster, and I wanted this?!?”
As you might expect – I was praying fervently without ceasing. I told Alyse that Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “do one thing every day that scares you.” Alyse’s quick response was, “Eleanor never drove highway 1!”
Although, our drive was terrifying, particularly in this section, there was more to our story. As we went up our first set of mountains she could tell her mom’s anxiety level had ramped up, without asking, she put on the song, Jesus take the wheel, sung by Carrie Underwood. She knew that I prayed that line from the song, “Jesus, take the wheel” repeatedly on another switchback road a year ago. As we started climbing the jagged rockface she put on a U2 album from my phone, the Unforgettable Fire Live Tour. This concert brought me to a deeper faith and experiencing God’s love and call on my life. It struck me halfway through listening that I attended this event when I was exactly Alyse’s age, the spring of my first year of college. That felt like a God-wink to me. Alyse chose this album knowing it would really minister to me. She knew her mom well. Even though the hairpin turns were making her nauseous, she sacrificed her own comforting tunes to care for me. I was so grateful.
I did sense the Lord’s presence with us; inviting me to keep relaxing my grip, to worship him in my distress, to sing as if I had no fear and to trust him to care and protect both me and my daughter. He got us safely through it. On that drive, God invited me to stay fixed on him, present directly to the road in front of me, not the high peaks, the crashing waves in the far valley below, nor the ridges on the horizon. The small stretch of highway just ahead of my tires, that’s all I’m responsible for as a song of surrender played on our speakers. I surrendered the drive, the fear, myself, and my daughter to far more capable hands than my own to find our way forward.
Alyse and I did have an adventure and a trip I know I will never forget. God was there in the fear, inviting me to trust him when it counted the most. He carried us in our hour of need and used Alyse to minister to me; so I did get what I prayed for after all.
No matter what road you are on, God is with you too. The Creator and Source of Life invites you to surrender, trust him and will lead you.
These stories were shared in my sermon preached at Stanwich Church on 6/12/22 and can be found on our Stanwichchurch.org/sermon-audio/ or video at https://youtu.be/UKM8n4l43bE?t=2474.
The Rev. Dr. Heather Wright is Pastor of Care and Connection at Stanwich Church. She is also a licensed therapist and author of 4 books. More on her can be found at heatherpwright.com.
