Have you ever been driving down a freeway or road, maybe even heading home, lost in your thoughts and suddenly look up and realize you missed your exit? Or traveled too far without paying attention and now you’re lost? It’s interesting how we can travel along going in the right direction, everything seeming fine and suddenly look up and realize we’re lost. Sometimes it’s not until the scenery changes that we notice we’re in the wrong place.
I have an iPhone 5. I use the map feature fairly often, love being able to see the little blue dot traveling along pinpointing my exact location. In the car this week, my friend said “Do you want directions?” She then proceeded to hit a button, Siri came on to guide me to the building we were seeking. I knew the map, I knew the blue dot – I didn’t know Siri could talk me thru it! I’ve since tried to get Siri to talk from the map feature, but she remains silent! Yes for someone so technical, I have moments of being completely challenged. Mostly because I never read instruction books.
Yesterday I watched Mick and our friend Jeremy assemble a curio cabinet in my living room floor. Mick tells Jeremy he’s in charge of the directions and heads outside to gather tools. Jeremy grumbles along reading the instructions, saying he hates reading instructions. In the process he says the most interesting thing … “God’s lucky I like him so much since the bibles actually an instruction book.”
So I’ve been thinking about maps, directions, instruction books. If we move our physical address, we have to get acquainted with our new surroundings – new grocery stores, new gas stations, new take out, where’s the closest sushi or the best street tacos. If our new home has CCRs or an alarm or we buy new furniture, we have to read instructions, contracts or directions to get settled in, to bypass errors, to keep from blundering.
But what if we change a different address? We have a new job, new relationship, new friend, new nemesis, new project, health issue, desire, study, class, crisis, etc etc. Do we ask for direction? Do we go to the instruction book? Do we look for the blue dot to see where we are and what is the correct route to take?
We are always on the move – changing this, changing that. Seeking new levels of satisfaction – whether it’s sushi or jobs, relationships or tacos. We change addresses all the time. God has one address, never changing. He tells us where He is, where to find Him, gives us the instruction book. Always available. We just need to read the instruction book, follow His lead and keep our eye on the blue dot so we don’t wander into an unfamiliar neighborhood.
