FINDING THE WAY BACK

As a dispatcher for a courier company I’m used to dealing with the issue of directions. And in Southern California with its maze of freeways and countless addresses to find, having a good sense of directions and being able to read a map book is critical. Naturally we wouldn’t expect to hire anyone who couldn’t at least master the simple knack of finding a given address, especially with the tools we make available.

However despite our employee screening process, training assistance and resources available we still sometimes end up with drivers who literally can’t make it from point A to point B without getting lost. I do wonder at times how they even manage to get to the office or home given the fact they can’t be dependent upon finding a new address even with help. Obviously that liability as a rule generally ends up in the person quitting in a short time since our deliveries are constantly changing each week.

Why someone with no sense of direction would want to work as a driver is a question I can’t answer. And I do hope they find a job where such a skill isn’t required. Unless they happen to refine that talent in some way, but from my experience that seldom happens.

When following the Lord sometimes it can be difficult to have a good sense of direction. There are simply so many different maps out there to choose from. And everyone seems to revel in the chance to offer you his or her version of the best path to follow. They might be lost themselves, but that doesn’t keep them from giving directions.

For believers our main source for a spiritual map book is supposed to be the bible. It has a great deal of information on what is the Lord’s instructions on the path we are suppose to follow him by faith.

The problem is that everyone who reads it comes to his or her own opinion on what the information means. In reality God’s plan for our spiritual journey makes allowance for getting confused or lost. He calls it grace. However there are many people who seem to approach the scriptural instructions as if any error in directions has such dire consequences that you can’t under any circumstance admit or in any way accept you managed to get detoured in your understanding.

With the Lord if you come to the point in one’s spiritual life where you know you are off the path he intended you to follow, you can find your way back by coming to him in prayer. One seems in by asking for forgiveness and most of all be willing to follow the path he has chosen even if we can’t always see the final destination.

The biggest roadblock to finding one’s way back to the path of the Lord’s will is often pride. Satan will stir up the flames of the ego and we will not allow ourselves to admit we made a mistake. But God isn’t like us. He won’t subject us to some long lecture of “I told you so.” Instead, if we come and be honest and simply admit we got lost along the way, he’ll give us a spiritual “hug” renew us in our passion for faith and send us on the path of his will once more.

But it does take the willingness to surrender and turn back to the Lord. We don’t even have to travel to find him. For the way back is wherever we are because God is there already.