Know Where You Are

Some time ago, on the return trip from visiting my parents, we had a flat tire. Not surprisingly, never having been used or looked at in the 10 years it had lain at the bottom of the car trunk, the spare was also flat. So, being a long time Canadian Automobile Association member, I was fortunate to be able to call them to come to our aid.

Now, we were on a high speed highway that traverses backcountry with no ready access to anything for long stretches. However, the signage is good and I remembered what the last signs were that we had seen us to our southbound location on the highway. I had also pulled over where there was a road leading off the highway so that I had more room to park farther from the traffic lanes.

When I spoke to the CAA emergency operator then, I was able to give her a fairly exact location. I am not sure, but I probably mentioned the side road as well. As it turned out, this road was a shortcut to the nearest town and the truck that came to our aid appeared there in no time. If I had not known where I was, he would have had to take the long way northbound up the highway, spot me, go to the nearest place where there was a possibility of making a U-turn, which could have been miles, and then make his way back down to where I was.

Memories of this came to mind when we traveled this same highway again recently. One thing that impressed itself upon me was that it is good to know one's location on the highway for just such occasions as I described above. However, it also made me think of even more important situations in life where it is good to know where you are.

There are many junctures in life for many of us where the future seems more unknown. This is often particularly true of young people, as we say, "starting out." It occurs also too when something unexpected or unusual happens in our lives and we are left at a point where the future also looks unknown, or where we have to make choices.

As a Christian, we would like to know what God's will is, what His plan is for our life. Often we are not sure what it is and this makes us hesitate in making our own decisions. There are always three ways in which we can do more to ascertain God's will for our lives. The one that we might think of most readily is prayer; not just prayer where we make requests, but also where we take time to listen. Real prayer is a two-way street. The second would be reading and study of God's Word, The Bible. Again, we need to do this in the right frame of mind and in the right way so that we can also hear God speaking to us through it. The third way is to listen to fellow Christians. We are members of what we sometimes describe as the body of Christ, the family, a community. God may speak to us through others, particularly if they have had experiences where they were going through what we are facing at the time of asking the questions and can share how they were guided.

Sometimes, it seems that we end up making a decision without feeling confident that we, as we sometimes say, "have all the facts." Sometimes this leads down what turns out to be a wrong path. However, failures can always be learning experiences and starting off points for new direction. Sometimes it leads down a good road but we do not become certain of that until later. That may well indicate that God was actually speaking to us and we made a good decision in faith, even though we did not recognize the message at the time. Sometimes, it seems that we simply have to trust the future, unknown as it may still seem, to God and step out, seemingly "on our own."

As the old Scripture verse says, "In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths" (Proverbs 3:6).