Does your GPS have a name?
We call ours Bertha. Her calm, reassuring voice is always available to tell me where to turn. If I mess up and take the wrong road, Bertha gently guides me back to the correct path. Often her soothing voice suggests, “Make a legal U-turn.”
Bertha’s advice is always accessible, if I take the time to program the system.
Bertha can’t help unless I tell her where I want to go. For safety reasons, I’m not allowed to do the programming while driving. So if I’m in a rush to get going and don’t take those few moments, I’m on my own. Too often I don’t think much about Bertha until I’m already lost.
Bertha came to mind recently. I’ve told you about Dream Season for FREEDOM TOUR 2020. I’m in a rush. I want to figure it out, be decisive, make sure we’re ready to go. I realized I haven’t done much talking, or listening, to Jesus about what He might have in mind.
I know He’s there, ready to offer guidance, if I take the time to have the conversation. But like Bertha, often I don’t think about Him until I’m already lost. Then, when things are all messed up, I wonder why He let me get into such horrible circumstances.
I’m not the guy who believes Jesus gives GPS-type directions in a Bertha-like voice. I think He’s okay allowing me to choose my own shirt without a sign from heaven. He gave me a brain, and I think He expects me to use it.
But I know from experience that when I take time to talk to Him, the conversation always yields a clear, unmistakable sense of direction. Not always easy, or what I want to hear, or on my timetable. But experience – and faith – says it’s always available.
I also know the painful experience of wondering how I managed to get so lost, with no clue what to do or where to turn. And when I finally stop the frantic headlong rushing to and fro, when I finally calm down and sit still and admit I’m lost, when I finally decide to take time to listen, I always discover a way out.
I can’t be too lost for Jesus to find me, and I can’t get to a place so dark that He hasn’t already been there. And because He’s been there, He knows the way back to the light. Often, there’s a familiar first step.
“Make a U_turn.”