My personal GPS

During my years conducting market research feasibility studes for commercial real estate development projects, I spent countless hours driving around unfamiliar cities, balancing watching the road, looking for street signs, and trying to decipher a road map - all at the same time. How much easier it would have been to simply start the car, type in the address of my destination, and allow a pleasant voice to guide me from where I was to where I needed to be. Alas, I learned to do it myself the old-school way, but using a GPS makes driving so much simpler, and allows for fewer time-consuming mistakes. I've decided that the next car I buy will definitely have a GPS in it .

Living life on my own is like driving in a strange city without a GPS. In fact, sometimes it's like driving without a map at all. Even if I know where I want to end up, knowing which route to take is often an overwhelming decision. And I make the wrong turns more often than I'd like to admit. As soon as I realize I've made a wrong turn, I try to look around, get my bearings, and get back on track. Sometimes I'm able to find my way again quickly. But many times I drive around, often in circles, trying to figure out which way I should be going.

I now have a basic GPS system in my car.  More importantly though, I have a GPS system of another sort - a better sort - that's with me all the time.  It's my God's Positioning System (a.k.a. Prayer), that keeps me on track. Whether I know where I'm headed it or not, it always gets me there. I notice that it doesn't always direct me in the path I would have chosen, and it doesn't always use the shortest or most direct route. But it always gets me exactly where I'm supposed to be exactly when I'm supposed to be there.

And the thing I like best about my GPS system is that even though I often make a wrong turn, even when it's already told me which way to go, it doesn't shut off because I made a mistake. It simply says "Recalibrating", and gently directs me back on the right path from exactly where I am.

God is like that. He's always there to direct our path, if we'll simply let Him. I'm learning the hard way that it's always good to ask for directions, even if we think we know the way. Because just like the satellites that guide earthly GPS systems can detect traffic delays and reroute us to a better route, God knows things that we couldn't possibly know and He often diverts our path to keep us from harm, to show us something we need to see, or to bring us an unexpected blessing.

I already have the best GPS system there is. I just need to remember to keep it turned on.