Friday, March 30, 2018

GPS--God's Positioning System

Good Day, Sojourner.... continue your journey.

It's not as simple as you're born, you live, you die.

Because we were created by God, for God, we have built in compasses, the Holy Spirit, encouraging us to keep on the path to our God ordained destination.

A GPS is a Global Positioning System. We have one in our car and I appreciate it. My favorite button to press under "destination" is Go Home. In spite of our attempts to outguess it by getting out a map or stopping someone/anyone to ask for directions, our GPS has proved dependable.

I'd like to think of God as my own personal innate GPS. Unlike the car GPS, however, my life journey is not going to take me on a direct route. There may be ruts in the road, a tornado whirling overhead, the occasional flat tire, an engine that needs servicing, a gas tank that needs refilling, or the annoying backseat driver. The trip may at times feel like a never-ending roller coaster ride or at other times feel like being stuck in quick sand, unable to escape dire circumstances. God, however, is ultimately my "Go Home" destination. On the way, there will be times of sorrow, times of rejoicing, time of questioning, but it will be an adventure.

C.S. LEWIS writes The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing--to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from...my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for Home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back.

Safe travels wherever today takes you; trust your own innate GPS, Christ within.





Thursday, March 8, 2018

Track Season...Ready, Set, Go

Track is a little like life. In this sport, we know where the race starts and where the race ends. Life differs in that we know where we started, but the finish line remains a mystery.


With track, everything is laid out: the lanes, put one foot in front of the other, keep going, the finish line. No surprises here....

With life, there are no lanes painted on an all-weather track. We don't know what's around the curve or where the finish line lies. It seems to be more of a roller coaster ride--scary, adventurous, messy--to places we've never even imaged or wanted to.... Hurdles, stumbles, quicksand--and it goes on and on.

There is no end to the "ready, set, go".  A new job, another baby, a relationship challenge, a financial or health issue. There are periods of time when each morning seems a "ready, set, go."

The use of the word "go" is used many times in the Bible, from when the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you." To the verse in Matthew, "Go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Some things don't change a lot. The sport of track being one of them.
Some things in life don't change a lot. From generation to generation to generation, it's been a "ready, set, go" kind of routine.


Someday, that will all change. There will be a finish line. A permanent finish line, a glorious finish line. Knowing that, let us remember Timothy's words, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

                                         Ready, set, go...