Trusting Jesus and the GPS

Sherri and I have done quite a bit of traveling the last few years. We have, especially, enjoyed taking day trips to out of the way places in North Carolina. Naturally these trips take us to places we’ve never been. I have to rely on the GPS to get us where we want to go. But sometimes I think that the lady who is giving me the directions is wrong. I tell Sherri, “She can’t be right.” Sherri says, “Yes, she is right. Listen to her!” But I decide she is definitely wrong, and I go another way thinking that I will get her back on track. Unfortunately, almost every time we end up lost.

Our Sunday Bible study class is studying the book of Mark. Recently we were looking at the passage where Jesus sent two disciples to find the place where they would have their final meal together. Jesus told them to go to the city, Jerusalem, find a man carrying a water jar, follow him to a house in which he will enter. Meet with the owner of the house and tell him that The Teacher wants to know where the guest room is. He will take you to a large upstairs room that is furnished and ready. In that room you will make the preparations for us.

We discussed that the directions that Jesus gave were pretty specific, but they may have not been as complete as the disciples might have liked. I can see a lot of things that could have gone wrong. What if there had been several men carrying a water jar, although it was most often women carrying the water jars. What if they were afraid that the owner of the house wouldn’t believe them or that he would say he didn’t know the teacher? What if they decided, ‘This is crazy. These people will think we are out of our minds’? All sorts of things could have discouraged these two disciples. However, the one thing they were sure of was that Jesus knew what he was doing. They had faith in Jesus, therefore they trusted him, and they trusted his directions.

I don’t always trust my GPS to get me where I’m going, and when I don’t I get lost. In the same way we don’t always listen to what Jesus is telling us to do, or where he is telling us to go.  Sometimes when Jesus speaks to us, telling us the direction we should go we think, ‘That can’t be right. I can’t do it that way, or I can’t do that at all. This is where I’m supposed to be’. I have known many Christians who have refused to follow Jesus’ directions, myself included. The result is always harmful to our spiritual well being. I have suffered many tough times because I did not follow my Lord’s directions for my life. Jesus knows what is best for us. The GPS is correct most of the time, but Jesus is never wrong. He is always right.