Trusting My GPS
DECEMBER 26, 2019
Driving home from my conference in Orange Beach, Alabama this past Thursday, I found myself winding through small Florida towns…faithfully following the turn-by-turn instructions of my Garmin GPS navigation system.
When I realized that I was in Florida, it dawned on me that maybe…just maybe…my Garmin might be taking me the wrong way, or, at least the long way home.
You have to know that my driving has become so much more stress free since I gave myself the Garmin for Christmas in 2007. It is so nice to be able to hit the road at 6 or so in the morning headed to a meeting somewhere in Mississippi and not only get turn-by-turn directions for how to get to my destination, but also get an estimated time of arrival. This is huge because so much of my stress pre-Garmin was related to not knowing exactly how long it was going to take me to get to a destination that I had never been to before. The thought of a crowded room of school administrators waiting for the “PLATO guy” was none too pleasing and has virtually become a thing of the past since getting the Garmin.
So there I was in the panhandle of Florida, having left a town in Alabama trying to get to my home in Alabama, suddenly second-guessing my trusty Garmin that was taking me through Florida. In that moment I realized just how much faith and trust I put into my dashboard device. I reflected on that as I made another turn and twittered,
“I wish I followed God as faithfully as I follow my Garmin’s turn-by-turn directions.”
I was exposed. Why was it that I was only second-guessing the Garmin because it had unexpectedly taken me into another state to get me home, yet I second-guess God so often for so much less? I thought about how many previous trips I confidently made the turns I was told to make…even the trip that took me on 3 different dirt roads! I flippantly thought “Oh, well this is different” and kept driving with confidence and made it to my destination just fine.
Yet I so quickly second-guess my Heavenly Father when life presents an unexpected turn in the road and my orphan thinking immediately wants to take over. I think the key word there is “unexpected” and gets to the heart of the matter. I am fine as long as long as things are unfolding as I expect them to unfold and get upset when I start heading in a direction I was not anticipating. I exhibit more faith and trust in my Global Positioning System than I do in my Abba Father who created the universe and everything in it and yet still knows how many hairs I have on my head. (A few less than yesterday, I might add.)
Preaching the Gospel to myself each and every day involves reminding myself that God loves me and that His heart and plans for me are good…even if my circumstances in the moment seem to tell a different story. I am learning to die to my expectations and to live each day as a wild-hearted adventure with my wild-hearted Abba Father who loves me with an intense, consuming love. He is my Gospel Positioning System and He has never left me or forsaken me.