There’s a great, cliche analogy about life being like a road and God being the driver of your car.

When I think about cruising down the streets with God, I tend to think of God as a pretty good driver: he always uses his blinker, comes to a complete stop and goes only five miles per hour over the speed limit.

Maybe if things get really crazy, God makes a turn I don’t want to make, or turns the heated seats up a little too high — in which case, I would pray and ask him to fix it.

Well, over the last year and a half — particularly the last seven days — I’ve learned that when God is behind the wheel, your car rarely even stays on the road.

Over the last several months, I’ve had a lot of conversations about what God’s call looks and sounds like and what it looks like to live by faith and not by sight.

I was talking with a pastor and friend a few weeks before our LGBT feature was slated to come out and I asked him whether God ever calls people to things that they don’t want to do.

He paused, then gave his response: “Have you read the Bible?”

Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Esther, Jonah, Mary, Jesus, Paul … the list goes on and on.

We often talk about how God uses ordinary people to do amazing work for his kingdom, but it isn’t often we talk about the cost.

Abraham was ready to kill his son. Joseph went to prison. Esther risked her life.

And there isn’t anything scarier than praying the prayer, “Oh Father, use my ransomed life in any way you choose,” and God asking you to put your money where your mouth is.

There’s no big happy ending to this editorial. The truth is that God is off-roading in my car at 100 miles per hour and I want to go back to a 25 mph stroll down a residential road.

But thankfully, even when our car ride seems like it’s getting out of control, God works through friends and family and, at times, complete strangers, to remind us that even though we aren’t sure where he’s going, he still has both hands on the wheel.