Our GPS

I want to thank you all for allowing me to attend Polishing the Pulpit last week. As we were traveling, we were using our GPS. I know how to get to Sevierville, but it is a big help with traffic. It got me to thinking about God as our GPS. We have probably all heard thoughts about God being our GPS. He should be. This article is not about following God; it is about refusing to follow God.

It has been a month or so since I was driving to a destination near Nashville. I put the location in the GPS and began my journey. I asked Tara which route it had us taking. She told me, and we carried on our journey. A little ways in, my passenger asked about the route we were taking. I tried to explain to him the route when he wanted to know why we would go that way. I tried to explain that the GPS takes into account traffic, detours, wrecks, etc. He said he did not want to go that way, he knew a better way, to just listen to him. Before we condemn my passenger, I will have to admit that I have done the same thing. You might have also.

Is this how we treat God? God lays out where we need to go and how we need to go, and we think we know better. I feel more comfortable going this way. I have never been this way. I think this way is faster. That way goes through a rough part of town. So we decide to go our way, and sometimes in the here and now we feel like it worked out for us just fine to do it our way. That just adds to the delusion that we know best. At worst, we find ourselves in a mess begging the GPS to find us a way around. I have been in those situations, and yet I find myself trusting in myself still. I am not saying you should always trust your GPS, but I am saying you can always trust God (Proverbs 3:5-6).