How Siri Helped Me See Where I Had Been: A Guest Post by Krishana Kraft
I recently reviewed a book by Krishana Kraft called Tandem Living, an excellent book about Krishana’s journey with God, learning how to live in tandem with Him, even through the devastation of cancer. I’m glad to say that today, I have the honor of posting a guest post by Krishana. I hope you enjoy her story-telling skills like I do, and I hope it sparks memories of where God has taken you in your own life. For more of her writing, head to tandemliving.org.
by Krishana Kraft
Driving around Chicago isn’t like driving around my hometown in southern Indiana. I wasn’t even downtown; even traveling around the western suburbs of Chicago, in my mind, could not be correlated to my home driving experience.
However, somehow 16 years ago, I ventured around this area without a GPS, probably coming close to traffic accidents as I studied my MapQuest printed directions. I was fresh out of college and an intern at a Christian teen magazine. My internship commitment was a year. In my college mind, that still seemed like a long time, but now it feels like a small drop in the bucket.
After a full day of insights and inspiration at a leadership conference, I was headed back to a former roommate’s house to have dinner and stay the night before traveling home in the morning.
I plugged in her address and allowed Siri to calculate the fastest route from the leadership conference parking lot.
Pressing “GO” started the British accent voice taking me slowly out of the parking lot and then turning right on the first major road.
I had already been in Chicago for two days using my GPS and realized that it takes approximately 35 right or left turns to get anywhere—even if you’re only traveling 10 to 12 miles.
Most days at home, I travel 15 to 20 miles on two or three major roads, and I’m familiar with my favorite stops along the way. It doesn’t take much to detour and swing by a friend’s house to say hello or stop into a favorite coffee shop when they have their Miami Mocha special (orange and chocolate . . . need I say more?!).
Even though I had lived in this area at one time, things had changed. New businesses had popped up, and familiar spots had dissipated. For one thing, my former roommate was now married and living in a different house about 20 miles from the previous condo I once called home.
“Turn left on . . . road.”
The British accent botched the road name, but as I made the left-hand turn, I saw the street sign.
This was a familiar turn.
I drove slowly as a wave of memories came flooding in. Only two days prior, I had heard my friend tell the story of how we became roommates. It was a chance meeting, as the Christian teen magazine I worked for brought youth pastors from the community to share their insights about the youth culture topics we desired to cover.
On the left, I saw the condo complex. There was the street I once called home.
She was one of the youth pastors at that meeting, who had an extra room in her condo. While she didn’t advertise this available room, she had heard me share a prayer request of needing a place to live with only a couple days to find a location on an intern’s budget. She approached during a break in our meeting and described what she had to offer. My parents and I visited her condo afterward, and the rest is history.
As I continued driving, the road turned into heavy traffic and construction.
How could this have been the fastest route?
All my life, I’ve been searching for the fastest route from point A to point B.
Didn’t God want me to get to that next destination so I could get busy doing what He desired for me to do?!
“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannnot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
This was Jesus’ response to Nicodemus during a middle-of-the-night conversation about following Him.
He didn’t say that those who believed Him to be the Son of God and followed Him would be able to pull out their printed directions or plug in the destination coordinates and understand the turns along the way.
He didn’t even say that what seems to be the fastest route would be just that.
He said that everyone born of the Spirit, those who follow Christ, may be led in ways they don’t even understand—like the wind.
One year. I only lived in Chicago for one year. However, during the rest of my drive, I realized that God had set this up long ago. Sixteen years ago, the community I had met in Chicago are a continued piece in me following God today.
While my adventure with God, what I call Tandem Living, has had its ups and downs along the way, God reminds me today that this journey isn’t over. He has more around the corner. Not solely in how my circumstances play out, but more of Him. More facets of Who He is that He desires for me to discover. And He will use whatever it takes to reveal more of himself to me and in turn for me to bring Him more glory.
Sometimes it feels like God constantly reroutes me, but in actuality, it is how He set it up all along.
“Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.” —Corrie ten Boom
Meet Krishana Kraft
Krishana Kraft tends to find adventure in unexpected places. From a small town in southern Indiana, she holds a bachelor’s degree in communications (journalism) and what feels like a master’s degree in cancer. It’s from those painful moments in her journey that led her to a deeper relationship with Jesus — an adventure unlike any other.
Formerly a Brio magazine associate editor (Focus on the Family) and missionary with Greater Europe Mission, Krishana continues to use her experiences to inspire and direct her position as a freelance writer and speaker. When not behind her Mac, she loves rich conversation, traveling around the globe, missions opportunities and inspiring young women toward intimacy with Jesus.
Join her on her adventures at www.tandemliving.org.
Krishana also recently published a book called Tandem Living, which you can find {here}.
Join a young woman as she faces the pain of a life-threatening disease in the midst of a new calling and honestly faces questions about God. This journey forces her to consider what it means to connect with Him through adventure and adversity, no matter the outcome. Tandem Living is a memoir by Krishana Kraft that takes you on her high-risk adventure with Jesus across cultures, through cancer, and into the mystery of God.
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