Directions?

Who has the directions?

I have an uncanny ability to never get lost. I get it from my Dad's side of the family. No matter where you take me it seems like I can always find my way. My nephew got the same ability, as a young boy he told my friend Debbie how to get somewhere at the campground where we spend part of the summer. Now my other nephew seems to have no idea where he is most of the time. He's probably get lost walking down a street with no turns. For people like him we have directions.

Most people need directions to get somewhere. Directions are suppose to help us find where we are going, except if they are outdated or wrong. There is nothing worse then having bad directions.

I'm sure through the history of the world bad directions have let to many disappointments. But the question remains, who has the directions.

Last week my roommate was going from her office in DC to Bethesda. She was saying that when she first printed out the directions it took her over into Virginia and up the GW Parkway to the beltway. Something like 26 minutes. It was suppose to be the shortest time route. but it was like miles longer. She reran the direction looking for the shortest distance route and it was 27 minutes. Most people would have taken the first route just trusting the directions.

A while back, I overheard a discussion at work over which website offered the best directions. I was really shocked that people had such strong opinions about something as simple as directions and where to get them from. Mapquest? Google? Yahoo?

One guy said that he prints out all three and studies each one to find the best route. How can you really know the best route to a place you have never been before.

Do we ever learn which directions to trust and which ones to assume are bad? How can we tell the difference?

God is the master at giving directions.

Jonah 1:1-3a
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.

Then it takes a whole two chapters, three days and three nights in the belly of a "fish" for Jonah to finally come to his senses. Which is a lot considering that Jonah is only 4 chapters long!

Jonah 3:1-3a
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: " Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you." Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.

Directions right from the Lord. Think Jonah's directions were clear enough? Imagine if we heard God as clearly as that. Do you think we would have run like Jonah did?

Well believe it or not we can have a walk with God like that. The more that prayer becomes a part of your life, the more that you work on that walk with Jesus, the more clear your directions will become.

The Devil will also be there to try to add to and change the directions to make them bad, to make us want to go to Tarshish instead. But if we seek God's will he can fix the directions and keep us focused on our goal.

The Christian walk was never promised to be easy, but it's a little better with directions you can trust!

Lord,

I pray that you are with us through this tough decision making time. Please guide each and every one of us to make the decisions that you would want for us to make. Help each of us to be patient with each other. I thank you for such a loving group of people who can come together as a family.

Brie!