Thursday, November 22, 2012

Go Home


Last month I took four separate trips, three by car.   Like just about everyone else on the road I own a GPS.  Amazing technology, I have no real idea how it works except that it uses satellites to pin point our location and guide us to places we want to go.  How cool is that??  I Simply enter my destination, give her (I use a female voice, so..) a moment and she guides me along the way.  Don’t know the address?  No worries, click on Points of Interest, type in the name of the location and she searches for me.  Run into traffic, click on Detour and she finds me another route.  Works perfectly the vast majority of the time, I have no idea how we got along without her.  I even have that technology on my phone.  I’m almost certain you do too.

This week God brought this to mind.  And, I haven’t been able to lose this thought ever since.  I think so many times I use my relationship with Christ like I do my GPS.  I talk to God and I expect Him to tell me how to get where I want to go.  Except, that’s not who God is.  He tells me where I need to go, whether I want to, or not.  Big difference.  

The reminder for me may be best expressed in one of  God’s “I AM” statements.  God tells us “I am the Good Shepard.”  He doesn’t simply want to be my life coach or on my board giving me input, encouraging me and helping me along the way.    As long as I want God to serve as a consultant, it’s never really going to work out.  God has one singular spot in my life, and that’s as my leader.  He’s in charge, He’s the Shepard.  He wants me to understand that He is the one that is able to tell me where my life needs to go.  Message heard.

I think all of this came out of a comment I’ve made several times, “my favorite button on my GPS is the one labeled ‘Go Home’”.  Because no matter where I am, in familiar surroundings or totally lost, I can click Go Home, and she takes me there.  The place I am most comfortable, best known and loved.  Going home is great, and after a long trip there’s no better feeling.  In similar fashion, when life goes bad, when I make terrible decisions, when I fail God and those I love, somehow God takes me to a place when I’m willing to come in repentance, where I can find rest and peace.  
                                                               Photo:Mine


God wants me and you to know that He is the Good Shepard, and if we will trust Him, He will lead us into the life we were created to live.  Jesus said I am the Good Shepard, follow me.  I’ll use my GPS to get around on trips, but I’ll listen to God’s voice to get around in my life.  

Happy Thanksgiving!  I'll see you soon.