My wife has a running argument with our GPS.
She’s good at orientation and generally has a good idea of where she’s going and where she’s been. I’m not and I don’t. Sometimes I’ll notice buildings for the first time and she assures me we’ve passed them for months. Dunno. It’s hard to pay attention to people building skyscrapers when you’re busy solving all the hard problems of humanity while you’re driving (or replaying the football game in your head).
But back to Phyllis and the GPS. It’s comical, really, because at times she’ll fuss at it, assuring the exasperating device that the route indicated is not where we want to go. Most of the time I’m resigned to do whatever it says, since I’m lost anyway. He can’t get me much more lost that I already am.
I have my suspicions, though, that sometimes he takes me by goat trails just because he thinks it funny. “Turn left after 100 meters. Turn left! Turn left!” Was that a little snicker I heard in the background when I turned left? Do GPS’s send SMS’s to their GPS friends, “You ought to see where I’m taking him this time. Yuk, yuk, yuk!”
And don’t disobey your GPS either because it makes him mad. At times he simply recalculates the route but when he’s having a bad day, he’ll harass you until you have to turn him off to shut him up.
And the thing likes to talk and give orders. Sometimes I fire it up and he’s already going. “Cross the rotary after 100 meters. Second exit!” “Shut up!” I tell him. “I haven’t even told you where we’re going, so how can you tell me how to get there? Stupid machine.”
I guess I have my arguments with him too.
The thing I like, though, is that he generally gets me there. In the bad old days before GPS, I would have to stop and ask umpteen times before we finally got to where we wanted to go.
Google maps helped a little, but Paris was a nightmare because it seems that most of the street signs are hidden behind something (or non-existant), and there are cars, trucks, people, and birds going every direction, the whole crew honking, blowing police whistles, and yelling. You can’t even find a place to stop and ask someone where you’re lost at.
With a GPS it still isn’t easy but it’s better.
Heavenly GPS
I’ve had times when it seemed getting directions for my life was about as tough as trusting my GPS. Truth is, the Lord can be more frustrating than a GPS. Have you ever accused God of taking you down a goat trail when there was an autoroute three blocks over? He does that sometimes, but He doesn’t chuckle. He knows we need it.
God led Israel around for years in the desert even though there was a quicker way to where they were going. They had to learn to trust Him.
“I took you through the wilderness for forty years and through all that time the clothes on your backs didn’t wear out, the sandals on your feet didn’t wear out … proving to you that I am in fact God, your God.” (Deut. 29:5-6, The Message).
In other situations, how I’ve longed at times to hear God’s voice loud and clear. Why doesn’t He send me an SMS so that I’ll know what He’s trying to say? Or program it on my GPS?
But, He wants me to learn how to get quiet in my heart, settle down and really listen for Him.
“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isa. 30:21, NIV)
Sometimes the waves crash so loudly in my life, that it seems like there is no strength left in my inner being. Then He leads me to a place where He can restore me.
“… you find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.” (Ps. 23:2, The Message).
It’s true that I get frustrated with my Heavenly GPS at times. Don’t tell anyone okay?
Only thing is that I know He isn’t playing tricks on me. Every road He directs me onto is absolutely necessary. No snickering, just a Father who loves me (and you) beyond comprehension. You see, the trip is almost as important as the destination with Him.
He’ll get you there. Quit arguing.
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Hmmm …
“Human nature, in no form of it, could ever bear prosperity,” John Adams wrote in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, warning against the coming corruption of his country.