We had just moved from Michigan to Ohio. I didn’t know the area so you can imagine how difficult it was to drive a school bus in unfamiliar territory. One morning, I was subbing for another driver. The first students on my bus were 1st graders. After the first pickup, I got completely turned around and couldn’t make sense of the map. Panic began to set in. I said to the little ones sitting behind me… “Do you know the route?” To my surprise, they knew the route verbatim and they guided me through it. Turn left here. Pick up that student waiting. Turn right here. As soon as I unloaded the bus at the school, I thanked the Lord for those precious ones who guided me.
Thank goodness for the navigation system built into our phone, right? My phone has led me more times than I can count… and to the exact place I need to be. Well, God has given us a navigation system that’s much better than our phones. His Word. He has promised to guide us. I’m sure you realize that life can change on a dime. I was watching a show the other night and the storyline was of a young couple having a dinner party to celebrate their anniversary. Their future looked bright. But that night, everything changed when they were viciously attacked. She and her husband barely survived. Later, the wife said to her counselor… “I hope our marriage can make it through this!”
Life can take an unexpected turn. Things are moving along great with lots of plans, and then everything changes in a second. We may be left all alone after the death of a spouse, or the grief is too much to handle, or we wonder how we will ever pick up the pieces from this heartbreak, or we’re trying to make sense of the terminal diagnosis we’ve just been given, or we’re devastated by betrayal. Life as we knew it has changed and we wonder, “How will I navigate through this?”
Here's the thing… God has given us a guide. And this guide is here to help us navigate through every season of life… in the good and the bad. But if we choose to let Him guide us by His Word now, then it will be a natural response when life changes. His Word is a precise navigation system and hits the mark every time. My daughter said that she uses her navigation system in her phone all the time, even if she’s been there a hundred times. This is what we should do with the navigation system that’s been given to us. Let’s become adept at using it now so that when life takes an unexpected turn and we feel lost or confused about the future, we will go to the one place that has guided us every day. His Word! He HAS promised us to guide us.