Photo Credit: Jeff Kubina (Creative Commons)
God is a lot like a GPS system.
Now, I don’t mean that He fits conveniently in a holder on your windshield, or that He exists only to get you where you want to go (although, sometimes we treat Him that way), or that He’ll direct you to the perfect cup of coffee or even that He has that mechanical female voice that mispronounces street names. He can’t be turned on and off at a whim or controlled or spit out answers to your inquiries in 20 seconds or less (even if that is what we all want). And he never, ever needs to be updated.
God is much bigger than all of that.
But when it comes to discerning His will, when it comes to figuring out the next step in our lives, when it comes to moving forward in our callings, pursuing our dreams and making the passions He put in our hearts come alive, He has one characteristic in common with a GPS system:
He provides a course redirect.
Too often we believe that God has one perfect, absolute plan for our lives. It’s laid out in stone, planned down to the smallest detail and it’s our job to figure out what that plan is. Every decision, every fork in the road, every job we take, person we talk to, church we attend and minute we spend of our free time all factors into this divine plan. If we make the wrong decision, if we take the wrong turn, if we should have taken the new job instead of staying in the old, if we hesitated on starting the nonprofit instead of moving forward, if we got involved in that new church instead of sticking it out in the old, then we’re out of the plan. And there’s no way of going back.
We messed up God’s plan, made a bad decision and will forever fall short of everything God has for us.
Or so we’ve been led to believe.
“I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.” Jeremiah 29:10
God’s plans for us aren’t so rigid. His plans aren’t so set in stone. His plans aren’t limited to our faulty obedience, deaf ears and fear of taking risks.
He moved through Moses, even when he was afraid of his stutter.
He moved through David, even after he committed adultery.
He moved through Abraham and Saul (who later became Paul) and Peter and Jeremiah and Jonah and countless others who made mistakes, took a wrong turn and even ran in the opposite direction of God.
When we make a mistake, when we take a wrong turn, when we choose the wrong job, or hesitate in starting the business or pursue the wrong major, He is faithful to come in, perform a course correct and gets us back on track.
If we are truly following Him, truly seeking to make Him known in our lives, He will intervene and turn our mistakes into nothing more than small detours in the path He has for our lives.
Where has God performed a course correct in your life?
