“Rosie,” Where Am I Going?

This week I had the joy of going to the state of Georgia and speaking at two Christian schools and one church.  I spoke to both junior and senior high students.  I loved being with them.  They asked wonderful questions and talking with some of them afterwards, I could sense their deep love for and commitment to following God.  It was a blessed time.

My mother joined me on this trip to Georgia.  We had a general idea of how to get there but didn’t know the exact route to get to our destination.  Enter – Rosie.  Who is Rosie?  Rosie is the name a friend of ours has given to his GPS device.  I turned Rosie on, typed in the address, and presto! we were off.  “Drive 12 miles to Interstate 65,” Rosie said.  “In 1.2 miles turn left onto Hwy. 80,” was another direction.  How comforting listening to and following Rosie.

But then – what?  Did she say that?  Turn there?  That doesn’t make sense.  Surely Rosie has got it wrong.  Twice her directions seemed like she had blown a fuse and couldn’t possibly be right.  Even so, we decided to give Rosie a try.  You know what I’m going to say, don’t you.  Rosie was right every time and she got us safely to our destination – right to the door.

I’m so thankful for the GPS invention that knows the way I need to go in my physical world. I’m even more thankful to our heavenly Father who knows the way I need to go in my spiritual world.  Sometimes His commands and instructions seem not so important.  “No one does everything God says,” we reason to ourselves, “and they seem happy enough.”  “God will still love me,” is another fact we use to convince ourselves that not following everything God says is necessary.  Of course He still loves us when we disobey Him.  We never lose God’s love but we do lose our own inner peace and joy.  Obedience to our Father’s ways bring perfect peace.  Why does He instruct us?  It’s because of His vast love for us.  He knows our ways are imperfect but His ways keep us on the road to joy and courage and wisdom and peace.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.”  Proverbs 3:5-6