Recalculating the Route

I believe that God’s “will” for us is only a direction, not one path for us. Because I have free will, I can choose a direction based on my character defects, yet still have things work out. That’s because I believe God works like the GPS in a car: if we’re driving in the wrong direction, the GPS recalculates and finds an alternate route to get us to our destination.

Like the GPS, I believe God is constantly recalculating our lives to provide us with the best life possible. How can there be only one “will” for me, when God knows I make mistakes? Instead, God tries to help me by putting new reminders, new people, new ideas, and new opportunities in my path when I’m on the wrong road.

How many times have I willfully done something out of anger, spite, resentment, or stubbornness (like moving the sofa on my own), when I knew it was the wrong thing to do? And yet God comes along through my Overeaters Anonymous program or through others—in a meeting, in literature, in something someone says—to show me I can fix the situation by making an amends, seeing a doctor (if I’ve hurt myself), asking for help, or returning something. God recalculates my needs and offers me a way out of my self-willed detours by providing the opportunity of a new road to follow.

When I relapsed years ago because of my despair over a seemingly incurable workplace injury, I thought I would never be happy or abstinent again. And yet I kept going to meetings and finally heard the words I needed, which gave me abstinence. Then, I started a long, slow road to recovery.

I don’t believe it was God’s will for me to be hurt on the job. And I didn’t make a mistake—it was just one of those things that happen in my field (although my injury was worse than is usual). It took many years and many recalculations for God to show me the way out of my depression, anger, frustration, and pain, and a lot of it was through Overeaters Anonymous. I have to believe in the grace of God’s constant recalculations, so I know that a wrong turn is not a dead end and that even a mistake cannot hinder me from having a happy and serene life. I just have to be on the lookout for those signposts, and many of them are in Overeaters Anonymous.

— Virginia