Corners

GPS navigation systems don’t know everything, whatever we might think.  There’s a roundabout near my home that has four exits, albeit not evenly spaced; one goes into the town, one out, and the other two around it in opposite directions.  There is also the entrance to a private house which opens onto the roundabout at one of the larger spaces between the conventional exits.  SatNav shows this as a conventional five-exit roundabout.  And I’ve lost count of the presumably regular crossroads that I’ve driven up to, thinking as I approach that it’s only a T-junction.  Only when I’m right up to it can I see that it’s actually a staggered crossroads, and the ‘forward’ road is some distance either to the right or left.

Sometimes life itself seems to be a sequence of staggered junctions.  I well remember a friend and former colleague who, on the brink of moving to another part of the country, had to cancel all her plans because of a last minute glitch in the purchase of her new home.  Instead of bidding her a fond farewell, I found myself helping her to move from her now sold home to a short-term rent in another nearby town.  

Often, as life unfolds, one thing or another isn’t quite right.  When the right opening is there, we have other commitments; by the time we have released the necessary funds, the deadline for an investment opportunity has passed; or we may see the ideal vacancy ... but just don’t have the aptitude the advertiser is looking for.  I call it the polythene bag syndrome.  As you flatten one corner, a pocket of air bulges up at another corner; it seems it will never be completely flat. 

Somehow in life our skills and resources and the demands and openings for them never seem to match up perfectly.  We can only take heart from Paul’s words in the letter to the Romans, “All that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into His plans.” (Rom. 8:28, Living Bible).

One advantage of the staggered junction is that we are able to see, at a more leisurely pace, two sides of that charming cottage on the corner, and its delightful garden, instead of just the front gate had we passed it by at speed on a straight road.

And talking of corner sites:

Do you know what's around the next corner for you?