Listening for Directions, But Still Enjoying the Journey
This past year I sprung and bought a small GPS unit for my wife to use in the van. She had seen our real estate agent using one while looking for homes in Atlanta and thought it would be life-saving moving to the ATL.
Honestly, I’m not sure how we lived without GPS. Whenever we have someone new to go, we punch in the address, and then sit back and relax - trusting that the girl in the box will tell us when and where to turn. Before we know it - we’ve arrived, without having to squint to read street signs, or worry about getting turned around.
At least that’s the way it is supposed to work. What we’re finding is that there are a few times that the GPS fails us. We either punch in the address and blindly follow it to a location that no longer exists, or the destination is so new that our one year old mapping software in the GPS doesn’t know about it yet.
It hit me the other day that I need to treat God like a GPS unit, and less like a back seat driver (or co-pilot, or chauffeur). He hasn’t taken over the wheel completely. I think, honestly, he’s as interested in which route we take as he is about where we’re going to arrive. But more times than not I fail to listen, and there are even times when I hear the directions and decide that I know a better way to go.
I don’t have to worry about maps being outdated or God not knowing where I am supposed to go. I just need to listen.
Sometimes I think we get into this mindset that we’re in this constant communication with the Holy Spirit, negotiating our path, or that we’re sitting idly by while God simply directs us where He wants us to go. In reality, I don’t think it is either.
Perhaps, in a little more relational terms, it is like driving somewhere that our passenger friend knows, but where we’ve never been. We don’t spend our time pouring over maps, or over analyzing the journey. We sit back, still in control, and enjoy the conversation. Every once in awhile they speak up and say, “You’re going to want to get into the left lane” or “It’s the third street on the right.” We pay attention, but the focus quickly shifts back to the relationship and conversation.
And before we know it we’ve arrived.
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What Are Thin Places?
"Thin Places" are rich in Celtic tradition. They are the places in our lives where the divine and the natural worlds come so close together that we can catch a glimpse of God. For the Celtics these places were very real - places within creation where we could physically go. The Thin Places in our own lives are those moments where the space between us & the Kingdom is thin, when we are introduced to a greater glimpse of Who He is through our experiences and through the stories of others.
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Kenneth shared their voice on 07.10.2008:
Sometimes I get so focused on the roads (Is this where I am suppose to turn? How much farther until we get there?) that I forget to just sit back and relax and enjoy the conversation. Forgetting that often the ride there can be one of the most important times. Kind of like when you are on a youth trip. A lot of the memories I have involve the ride to wherever we were going and the relationships built, not even remembering from that particular conference had to say.