The GPS, Me and God - Step 11

Hi, my name is Jane. My sister Nan, was unable to write today, so she told me I could take a stab and write an experience of my own. We think a lot alike, so hopefully this will help give you a lift for the day.

The other day my son, Todd, came to pick my husband and I up from the airport after returning from a trip. This was the first time I had ever had exposure to the new technology of our day called “GPS”. It's a little black box that sticks to the front windshield. He was showing us how it worked. The first thing you do is to enter your final destination, so he entered our home as that final destination. The next information you put in the system is where you are at present, which for us was the Salt Lake City Airport. With this information the GPS then calculates the fastest way to get to your destination. After beginning, we noticed that several hundred feet before a turn, the GPS would speak to us making us aware of the upcoming turn so we would be prepared to take it. I thought it was a great! Shortly after leaving though, Todd showed us another interesting feature of the GPS. He said that he didn't really believe that taking I 15 going south was REALLY the fastest way home, even though the GPS had told him to do it on the way out. So, he decided to not obey the GPS and he turned onto I 215 going south. Immediately the GPS started speaking to us. Instead of telling us we were wrong and to go back, it started saying, “recalculating, recalculating, recalculating.” This was interesting to me. After recalculating, the GPS started telling us how to proceed forward to get to our destination instead of turning us back to where the mistake was made to begin over again.

The other day I got to thinking about this. I drove over to the high school to go running and I accidentally locked my keys in the car which, I thought, left me with no other way to get home but to walk the extra mile or so. I did have the impression to find another runner or walker to see if I could borrow their cell phone to call my husband to come with another set of keys, but I didn't want to bother anyone, so I decided to start walking. While walking along I saw the elementary school and thought it might be a good idea to stop there and call, but again, for whatever reason (mostly pride), I didn't follow the prompting. After passing the school, I passed a couple of friends along the way, but they didn't have a cell phone. I felt like I had blown my chances of quickly getting back to my car that day, as my husband was shortly, if not already gone to meetings and I didn't think I could get home soon enough to have him help me and I certainly didn't want to bother anyone by asking them to go out of their way to take me back to the car! Then I had the thought that maybe a friend of mine could help me when she went to that school to pick up her daughter at lunch time. After returning home, gratefully, my husband was there and we were able to get the car.

After walking and passing up all my obvious options I began thinking about the GPS. I thought about all the opportunities I had been given to get my car. My first prompting might have been the one Heavenly Father wanted me to follow, but my unwillingness to heed it for whatever reason didn't deter God from giving me other promptings to solve the problem. His job was to do everything he possibly could to help me “get home”(which in this case was to get the car). It was up to me to decide if I would follow that prompting. I never felt chided for not following the prompting, I just felt bad for the precious time possibly lost because of my stubbornness.

I began to see how this analogy applies in my life in general. Maybe because of stubbornness (pride), or weakness I get off the best and most direct course to happiness and peace, but I have found that in his mercy, God will take me wherever I am and do all he can to get me “home.” Many times I have felt lost or off track, but he never makes me go all the way back to the start, he takes me WHERE I am, “recalculates”, and we proceed forward.

By Jane M
Posted Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Copyright 2008 by Jane M. All right reserved.
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