Following the Right Directions

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. Hebrews 11:8 NLT

Traffic jams and big cities just go together! Living in Atlanta I have learned never to leave home without plotting my course with the GPS. I may know how to get where I am going but Google gets me around the inevitable traffic deadlock and gives me the occasional shortcut. If you drive in any big city you come to depend upon a GPS – until you don’t! Drivers in Denver might be a little hesitant after Google Maps left 100 or so stuck in the mud in 2019. When Google Maps gave drivers a shorter way to the Denver International Airport to avoid a major accident, drivers took the route. However, Google identified a road that wasn’t a road and left drivers hopelessly stuck in the mud for several hours. One lady interviewed said, “My thought was, ‘Well there are all these cars in front of me so it must be OK. So, I just continued.” As the road quickly turned into a slick, muddy mess she further said, “That’s when I thought, ‘Oh this was a bad decision.” There was no turning back once they were in the mud.

We all can identify with following directions over unfamiliar territory. I had a similar situation when we lived in Kenya, but with a different outcome. Our family was going to attend a worship service in one of the Maasai villages outside of Nairobi. I did know the road out to the church would be difficult, if not dangerous. However, unlike the GPS miscalculation, I was following a person who had made the trip to the church hundreds of times. He knew every turn, pothole, and ditch going out to the village. The difference is amazing when you are following someone who knows the way and you can trust him to get you to your destination.

The same scenario could be said of a lot of people spiritually. It is often a struggle to decide the right way to go, when in fact, if you keep your eyes on Jesus, the way forward is less important than the destination. Proverbs 20:24 wisely tells you that “The LORD directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?”  I don’t know about you but I realize that if I take my eyes off Jesus, what looks like the smoothest, most direct path of life ends up being a treacherous road.

Staying focused on Jesus allows you to weather the storms of life. You may think the best way forward looks great but you quickly realize it is the most dangerous way when you are following in the wrong direction. The Denver drivers faithfully followed the voice on the GPS only to find themselves stuck in the mud. Listening to the right voice is essential.

“Who is the third who walks always beside you?

When I count, there are only you and I together

But when I look ahead up the white road

There is always another one walking beside you.” –T. S. Eliot

“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.” Galatians 5:16-17 NLT

George Washington Carver understood the necessity of listening to the right voices. Had he listened to the voices within his cultural context he would not have heard that he could make an impact on the world as a scientist, advocate for justice, and a voice for the poor. He quit listening to the voices that would label him as “the orphaned child of a despised race” but would come to know the Creator whose voice He would follow throughout his life.

“All my life, I have risen regularly at four in the morning to go into the woods and talk with God. That’s where He reveals His secrets to me. When everybody else is asleep, I hear God best and learn my plan.” It was his faith in Jesus that Carver viewed “as the key to defeating racism and improving the plight of the poor.”

Oswald Chambers wrote “A river is victoriously persistent, it overcomes all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, then it comes to an obstacle and for a while it is balked, but it soon makes a pathway around the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, and presently emerge again broader and grander than ever. You can see God using some lives, but into your life an obstacle has come and you do not seem to be of any use. Keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you around the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never get your eyes on the obstacle or on the difficult. The obstacle is a matter of indifference to the river which will flow steadily through you if you remember to keep right at the Source. Never allow anything to come between yourself and Jesus Christ, no emotion, or experience; nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.”

The traffic anchor for KMGH Denver said of the GPS wrong turn, “You are driving. Google Maps is not driving. Google Maps is not perfect. You need to know where you are going and, if it does not look like that’s where you should be going, turn around and try again.”

Good advice for drivers, but also a great spiritual analogy. The world has much to say about which road to take but turn around because it will take you where you don’t want to go. The way Jesus leads will bring you home safely.

Your hope is not in the cultural context of the day but Jesus. Your road may be filled with obstacles but in Jesus, you have a Shepherd who guards his flock, a Friend who understands your needs, and a Savior who gives life.

Lord, we trust you to guide us through this week knowing your ways are right. Since You know what is ahead, let us listen with attentiveness and responsiveness. Amen

God is great!