Posted by I am directionally challenged. I have gotten lost in my own neighborhood before; it’s truly impressive how poor I am with directions. The other day, I took some of my friends to the airport, which was fine. I’ve been there a number of times and can pretty easily navigate my way through it, as long as it’s not rush-hour time. I dropped my friends off successfully and all was going well until I realized I didn’t quite know the way home.To make things worse, my phone had died, leaving me in a pickle.
I somehow managed to deduce that I was supposed to go East and began my drive to where I hoped home was. Luckily, my friend had purchased a phone charger for me earlier that day so my phone was being slowly brought back to life as I drove through the dark, passing exits that sounded vaguely familiar, but didn’t seem quite right for me to take. Eventually, when my phone was resurrected, I plugged in my address into my phone, and began to feel confident that I would safely arrive home and not in Oklahoma or Timbuktu.
Now, the problem with the GPS is that you have to actually follow the directions to get to your destination. I always feel secure that my phone will get me to the intended location, but I often have a hard time following the directions. I put my faith in my GPS, trusting that it will get me to my destination, yet often I don’t want to follow its instruction.
In this particular instance, I did exactly that. But, as I drove around in the darkness, getting lost and frustrating Siri, I thought to myself “I wonder how many times I do this to God”. How often do we pray and ask God for directions, but then refuse to follow his voice? We put our faith and hope and trust in the Lord, but then, somewhere along the journey, we begin to steer off, not following his instructions, thinking that we know better than Him. I wonder how many times we are “rerouted” as the Lord lovingly watches us veer off into areas he never really intended for us to travel.
In that moment, amidst the U-Turns and odd weaving in and out of traffic, I had to take a moment and repent for not listening to the Lord fully. Over and over again I’ve prayed for direction but when it came down to it, I just don’t respond to what he’s saying quick enough, leading to a missed “exit”. Or I, out of sheer rebellion or knuckle-headed-ness, ignore the directive, watching as the opportunity passes on by. Now, the beautiful thing about God is that he always gets me back on track, even when I’ve managed to get myself very lost in the dark.
If you’re like me and have that little rebellious streak in you, there’s no magical “fix-it” that will instantaneously solve all of your problems overnight. This life and heart change comes from intentional and daily communication with the Lord, consistently restating your dependence on him, throughout each day and each moment. I wonder what the world would look like if we became better listeners and followed God’s directives with renewed intentionality. Let’s be a people who are tuned into God and willing to follow His lead, no matter where the journey may take us.
Work in Progress 