God and the GPS

When Linda and I want to have a really crazy vacation, we take a road trip without maps. We drive to the nearest intersection and decide then, at that moment, which direction we're going to take. Then we drive to the next intersection, and decide then, at that moment, what direction we're going to take. At every stop we make the decision for the next step, never really knowing where we're going, where we'll wind up, but finding adventure in the uncertainty of our decision making process.

This last vacation to Alabama to visit Linda's parents was a road trip, but it wasn't crazy. We didn't use maps this time, but I did use a GPS. We call our GPS, "Kia." That's short for "know it all." Kia identifies our starting position, then, when I type in our destination, she calculates the route. "In 1.1 miles," she says, "keep left, then turn right." "Continue 197 miles," she says. "Turn right," she says. And when I fail to turn right? "Recalculating! Go .4 miles then turn left and make an immediate U-turn."

Kia is very nice about her job, but she's also very demanding. You see, she works on the assumption that I don't know where I'm going. Her programming assumes that she knows the big picture in regards to the available routes to get to the desired destination, and that I would not be using her if I already knew where I was going. So, I tell her I want to drive from Arab, AL to Lino Lakes, MN. At one point along the way, we turn off a perfectly reasonable interstate onto a two lane county road. The interstate is going the direction I think I want to go. Still, she demands the turn, so we make the exit.

It is a quiet little, beautifully shaded road in Missouri that follows along a river and has the most delightful little rises along the way that give that roller coaster effect when you speed up over them. It is not a very long drive, just a few miles, but it shaves nearly fifteen miles off the trip because it is more direct than the interstate would have been.

That experience happened a lot as I trusted Kia with the course of our journey. We took roads I would never have taken only to discover that there was less traffic, less aggravation, and less overall miles. She knew where we had come from, knew where we were going, and had the big picture of our journey in mind. She did not always make the choices I would have made. She never asked my opinion of her choices. She simply offered what she knew to be best and directed me to turn around and adjust my direction when I failed to follow her advice.

If this is not a great picture of what it means to trust Jesus Christ by faith then I don't know what is! If you want to spend eternity with God then you've got to trust your life to him and to the directions he provides. You have to trust his knowledge of the big picture. You have to trust that he knows the most direct, beneficial route from where you are to where he is, and you have to trust his leading along the way. Sometimes, he will lead you to make choices and follow him in ways you might not otherwise have chosen, but God has an advantage that "Kia" doesn't have. God actually knows it all AND is personally committed to doing what is best for you. "Kia" serves you, but God loves you! Those two facts, his knowledge and his love, make him
immeasurably, perfectly trustworthy for your life journey. God's ultimate trustworthiness makes him the perfect GPS ("Godly Positioning System") for your soul.

That's the Good News.