Do you remember navigating road trips using an atlas? As a child, I loved reading maps. Geometry teaches that the closest distance between 2 points is a straight line. However, I once took the “straight path” from Florence, Alabama to Asheville, NC, and because it was dark while reading the map, I failed to notice the peaks of green…mountains! It was just my two boys and me, and it took us hours to navigate in the dark through the mountains. Sometimes the straight line isn’t the right answer.
Nowadays, I need GPS to get from my house to the interstate. What happens if I lose my GPS? I panic.
Recently I just felt like I didn’t know where I was going. So I asked…Where do I go now, God?
When I don’t know the answer to where I am or what He wants me to be doing, which is often, I try to get a grip on a least a few fixed points that I can trust.
First point…Jesus. Some of you will roll your eyes. It’s not the religion, denomination, or cultural overlays, but instead, it’s Jesus, my friend. I look at what He has to say about where I am, and then I draw a line from Jesus to me.
Second point…my circle..my tribe! These are the people that I feel God has placed in my life to help navigate. Each of these people has a particular area of wisdom and experience, and I value their input. We are the average of the five closest people to us…it’s important to choose wisely.
Where all of these lines cross is most likely where God wants me. The math of Jesus is pretty simple. Jesus plus nothing. I used to think that following God was a complicated road map in a dark car where if one simply overlooked the green mountain peaks…you were destined to end up in the wilderness.
I thought if I measured the distance between God and me, I’d get closer to Him. What I learned is that all I really needed to know was the direction I was pointed to and that I was somewhere inside the large circle of God’s love and forgiveness.
I’ve made so many wrong turns. Occasionally I’ve navigated through disastrous storms with icy roads or dangerous re-routing. Sometimes I need to be pointed back in the right direction. Often among believers the expectation is to study and know more Scripture, commit to daily devotions and serve the community which all help build our faith walk. However, I find myself realizing that I’ll be ok without GPS. I just need a line to Jesus.
The circle of His grace and forgiveness is BIG enough, and the line leading to Him is long enough that I don’t need to always measure the miles between us to find my way.
It’s a pretty easy calculation each day, actually. I just find Jesus, keep pointing toward Him, and stay within that circle.
I don’t think the book of life is full of equations. I think it’s more about a book of stories, our lives. I bet it’s about people like me who made lots of mistakes and mid-trip direction changes to avoid the mountainous terrain. I wonder if it’s about those that have fallen like me who stayed within the circle of grace, staying the course on a long line pointing toward Him. And perhaps their names weren’t in the book because of what they did or didn’t do. They were in there because of who God is and what He has done to draw a circle around them.
When we arrive at our eternal destination, I wonder if there will be simple words spoken like “Welcome home!”
If you lose your GPS don’t panic! Point towards Jesus and go!
Please share so that others may have a message of hope! ♥️🙏
