Challenging Thought for Today:    Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way, walk in it.”  Isaiah 30:21

“Directionally-challenged” is a kind phrase for someone who does not have a good sense of direction or gets lost easily and often.  My husband has always had a good sense of direction and I’m pretty sure my picture is right next to the phrase “directionally challenged” in the dictionary.  I don’t even have to be in an unfamiliar place to get lost and often go in the same wrong direction each time. As the saying goes, “the struggle is real.”

One Sunday afternoon, my husband was driving through an area that I was unfamiliar with and it seemed as if he was not going to find the restaurant he was looking for.  So, I naturally wondered if he was lost.  His response was “just because you don’t know where you are doesn’t mean that I don’t.” The profoundness of that statement made me ponder our response to God as we travel this road often referred to as our spiritual journey.  I thought about our attempt to justify ourselves when we get lost along the way. When we don’t trust the leading of the Holy Spirit, we can allow fear and uneasiness to interfere with our journey.   

And, if we are not careful, we can unintentionally judge people and their challenges. I know I have certainly been guilty of looking at someone who seems to make the same mistake repeatedly and wonder why it’s so hard for them to see they are on the wrong path.  Yet in my own spiritual walk, I have also been guilty of wandering aimlessly along a path of my own choosing instead of turning to God and asking him which way to go.

If we focus on how many turns we’ve already taken, how many other “restaurants” we pass on the way to where we are going, we can miss valuable lessons that can be learned from the trip.   Especially when God takes us into areas we are unfamiliar with, challenging us to move out of our comfort zone.  When we look around and see people we don’t normally associate with, rocky paths we feel ill-equipped to travel, or roads that have previously been closed to us, it’s easy to feel lost.  But, we aren’t.

Memorize our thought for today and accept that God knows where he’s taking you.  Remember, that just because you don’t always know exactly where you are in the journey doesn’t mean that he doesn’t.  Heaven’s GPS location is already locked in and we can start from anywhere.

Just as the GPS in your car or on your phone will keep re-directing if you make a wrong turn, God’s GPS will continually let you know “this is the way, walk in it”.

Be Blessed.

Shelia