If you are above a certain age, you have lived through the evolution of how we navigate when we are driving. In the long-long ago we had atlas books that had the major highways and some cities, or paper maps that never quite folded back the way you wanted. With the advent of the internet, we had MapQuest where you could put in your destination and print out your turn-by-turn directions to anywhere you wanted to go. With maps, you needed some basic knowledge for how to use them. With MapQuest, you needed to pre-plan your trip. But then came affordable GPS!
You didn’t need to know anything more than your desired destination. You had the GPS with you and just punched in an address. And now it is an app on just about every phone. We always have something that will give us step-by-step instructions on how to get from where we are to where we want to be. This service tells us where we are, where we want to be, and how long it will take to get there. It encourages (possibly makes worse) our go-go-go mentality. We also lose some of the adventure we might find by taking a wrong turn.
In Psalm 25 David says this,
“3 Indeed, none who wait for you [God] shall be put to shame;
they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
4 Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long.”
Sometimes, instead of the go-go-go, we need to slow down and wait. Sometimes, we need to get off the fastest path to find what we need. Sometimes, we get so focused on where we WANT to go that we lose sight of where God NEEDS us to go.
We are pushed and emboldened to move forward, move faster, to always be making forward progress. When what we might need the most is to slow down and wait on the Lord to lead us to where we really need to be.