GPS

First let me say...I've never been to New Delhi. And this post would be more exciting if it took place in New Delhi instead of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Lately, I've been neatly contained within the state borders, though, so I'm getting my GPS directions on Scenic Hwy 7 instead of the Haipur Bypass. It's OK, I may make it to New Delhi someday and I'd like to know that the Google maps iPhone application works there too. For now, I just needed a photo.

All that to say this, when you get directions here, you get step by step turns. And if you're traveling in Fort Smith, you can watch the little dot that represents your car moving down the road. And if you miss a turn, you can watch your dot move back to the right place. I know this from experience.

I thought about this last night as I read the first day of the study Experiencing God. The illustration there is a map versus someone in the car giving you directions as you need them. God doesn't give us maps. He wants to be with us every step of the way giving us the right direction as we need it. Any sooner and we'd forget or get confused or turn too soon. Any later and the going just gets more and more difficult and confusing. And the only way we can get that direction is to have him with us, mile by mile. Before this handy dandy upgrade to iPhone, when I traveled, I mapped out complete routes using Mapquest. I wanted turn-by-turn directions for each stop on the path. I got them. But I didn't get anything else. No flexibility, no unexpected diversions, no chance to add in the nearest Sonic for a Route 44 at the last minute. How much easier the science, satellites and alien technology make it to get directions!

I heard a friend speak yesterday about needing to get over needing to know the plan. Amen, sister. I'm there. I need to get to the same spot...where more than anything else, I want everything God has to give me and I'm trusting, patient, confident enough to wait for the next turn instead of demanding, despairing, doubting when I don't have the entire journey mapped out for me.

Psalm 139

^1-6 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
I'm an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I'm never out of your sight.
You know everything I'm going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you're there,
then up ahead and you're there, too—
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can't take it all in!