The Right Directions

Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. (Psalm 25:4, 5 NIV)

Have you ever had a hard time finding your driving destination even with plenty of directions?  Last week, my extended family rented a great big 7-bedroom house up in Boone to have a vacation/family reunion.  But it wasn't easy to find.  We logged in the coordinates on our GPS's and I printed a map from Yahoo Maps.  They gave different directions.  Then we got an email from the owner that said, "Don't follow your GPS or online maps.  They will confuse you."  And then he gave us his own set of directions.  The problem was, his directions assumed you came onto one road from a specific (but unknown to us) direction when we came in from another.  We stoppped to ask locals directions, but they are as confused about the back mountain roads as any out-of-towner.  We finally followed the GPS and it got us there.... but it took us on some pretty frightening winding, weaving gravel and dirt roads with steep cliffs in the pouring rain!  Once we got there, we could take the owner's directions backwards and found our fatal move.  These roads weren't perfectly smooth traveling either, but it was easy to see that it was a much better way.  Going out to town and back was much easier once we knew the easy way.

Our spiritual lives are like that.  We get directions from everywhere.  Books, internet, TV, family, friends, our own church and even other churches that our sure our own church has the wrong directions.  When we follow our own way or the way of someone else who is equally confused, we are going to find some pretty scary roads.  And it is going to take a lot longer to arrive where God is trying to get us to go.

We need to use the Owner's directions to begin with.  He knows where we need to go, and the best path for us to take.  The roads aren't always going to be smooth and easy.  The sharp turns and bumpy paths make the destination all the more desirable.  But once we learn to travel the Owner's path, it's easy to see that his way is absolutely the best way.

The only way to get directions from the Owner is... from the Owner.  Others may give you the Owner's directions with their own "short cuts."  Some have misinterpreted the Owner's directions and you just might fall off a cliff!

Life is hard enough when you have the right directions.  Go to the Source.  He has your way mapped out and he will be there to help you over the steep hills and lead you back when you get too close to edge of the cliffs.  Prayer.  Bible study.  Worship.  You will find your directions in these.

Lord God,
Guide me in this day.  Help me avoid the pitfalls that I seem to find day after day.  Keep me from falling over the edge and bring me to the end of the day filled with the joy that comes from following your path.  Amen.