Yesterday after church I was to go to a committee meeting for a public service group in which I am very involved. I had an hour, so I figured this would be no problem. I might even arrive about 15 minutes early – time to go over the minutes from the last meeting I had not attended and get caught up.
It was at a lady’s house in an area of the metro I had never been, a small incorporated city in the suburbs. So I spoke into my smart phone’s GPS Navigator, plugged it into the portal in my car and proceeded to listen to the sweet, almost motherly voice tell me where to go and when to turn. After a half hour, another voice asked my brain if I was sure the GPS was leading me in the right direction. I was in the correct area of town. The street sign up ahead, bearing the bedroom town’s logo on it, told me that I was. All was going well. Still, after a few more turns, that little voice nagged me again to check the GPS program. At the next red light I glanced at my phone. The address I had spoken was not on the screen. Oh, well. That’s okay. This thing is smarter than I am. It knows the path.
I kept driving. The female voice told me to turn left. I did. She said my destination was on the left in 500 feet. Actually, that was a Walgreen’s in a strip center, not a house. I turned around. She repeated it was now on my right in 300 feet. Wrong. I pulled into a convenience store and asked where I was. I was in the right neighborhood, just on the opposite side about five miles off my target. The only straight shot street was under construction with just two lanes open. I crawled at 20 miles an hour in traffic and arrived 4 minutes late. Arghhh.
When I got home, I turned on my computer to check my email messages. There on the monitor as my verse of the day was one of my favorite Bible verses –
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will guide your path. Proverbs 3:5-6
Oh. I had to laugh. I had not leaned on my own understanding, but had relied on a human contraption to guide me. One which obviously could not decipher my Texas accent. Now, I am not saying Divine revelation would have gotten me to the meeting without a map. I don’t think I should have, in the middle of the day in a congested suburb, asked Jesus to take the wheel while I closed my eyes and had a power nap. But, if I had listened to that little nagging voice sooner, I may have been on time.
Even in the small things, God is there to guide us, correct us and show us a better way. The question is – which voice do we listen to during our day? Is it the Divine one somewhere inside of us – the one we know is not really from our own thoughts? Or do we listen to the voices of this world. Even when we are positive we are on the right path, we may not be close to where God wants us to be. No worries. There is always time to turn around and ask for His direction.
