One night I was on my way to a meeting and to avoid traffic I went another route instead of the way I normally take. I thought I knew exactly where I was going and therefore just kept driving towards my destination.

I took the exit of where I thought the building was but it turned out to be the wrong exit.  So I backtracked and took another exit which should have eventually took me to the main road that lead to the building.  Well, somehow I completely missed it again and found myself back on the interstate.  This made me think, “Ok, I guess I was not meant to do this today.”

As I’m driving away, I start thinking maybe God was just telling me “no matter how hard you try and how many turns you take, you’re not going to reach that destination – that you’re not meant to go down that road.” I started to feel really bummed.

Then I remembered something.  While I was driving aimlessly my mind flickered to my GPS and I very briefly thought about using it but I rejected it because I thought I could handle it on my own and find it myself.  Obviously that did not work at all.

And that’s when I realized that God is like your GPS.  He has given you directions and tools to get you to your destination.  But all too often we reject them thinking we can do it on our own because we know better, only to find out we don’t and fail miserably.  We wish that we had just turned to him in the first place or at least we remembered him.  God’s given us the directions and tools to us, either through speaking directly to us, through scripture, and through the wisdom and guidance of others.  When we reject all those, it’s no wonder we get lost.

Specifically for me, I feel like God was telling me this:  “Look at the instructions and directions I have given you.  Ignore me and do it on your own and this is where you’ll end up. ”  There’s something I know that God wants me to do and if I ignore it and strike out on my own, I will end up in the completely wrong direction.  Use the tools he’s provided, listen to the directions, and don’t ignore them.  And then you’ll never get lost.