A close friend sent me this picture of a map and compass, and it calls up so many memories. I have always loved maps, and I enjoy orienteering. When I took classes for my USCG Inland Master's License years ago, they taught us navigation at sea, which was much harder for me than the orienteering we did in Boy Scouts, because now you not only have to calculate heading and distance, but you must also deal with speed, wind, current, and drift. I am thinking of my father's involvement in the Navigators ministry when he was at the US Coast Guard Academy. And his involvement led me to seek out the Navigators ministry at Texas A&M when I was a cadet there, and I found that to be life changing. (Thanks Dad, for your example.)
Usually, we are free to choose our own path, and God will let us walk on either side of the road. But sometimes, Father God will actually direct our paths, right there in the moment. Isaiah 30:21 in the New International Version tells us:
Whether you turn to the right or to the left,
your ears will hear a voice behind you saying,
"This is the way; walk in it."
I had a real-life experience of this years ago. I was on my way to meet the Mercy Ship Anastasis in the Canary Islands for a Discipleship Training School run by Youth With A Mission (YWAM.) We were sailing to Dakar, the capital of Senegal, West Africa, where the ship would be performing cataract surgeries and maxillofacial surgeries, and the outreach teams would be assisting the local churches. You can read about Mercy Ships at www.MercyShips.org and maybe, just maybe, volunteer? Spend your vacation volunteering on the ship?
I had driven from Texas up to Washington DC over a two day period, but had forgotten my guitar at my first stop, so I returned to get it. Consequently, I had to drive all night to catch up. My father put me on the plane at Dulles that evening, but I couldn't sleep on the plane from the excitement. By the time I arrived in the Canary Islands, I had been up for 48 hours and was running on fumes. Upon landing, I realized that I had left my information packet on the seat of the car back in Washington DC, and I didn't know where to go.
Uh-oh.
But then I remembered just one line. "Big white cruise ship- can't miss it." How hard could it be, I asked myself. Hahahahahah!
At the airport, there were bus signs for various destinations, but one of them said Puerto de la Cruz. That means PORT, right? SHIPS! This has got to be it, right? I found the right bus but didn't want to change money until I knew the price. (I think I had about $20 on me for the start of a five-month trip.) I asked the driver the price, and went to change money. He called me back and loaded me up, even though I showed him I only had US Dollars, no Pisetas. "No problem!" he said. Ok, cool! I got aboard, and then during the ride down the mountain, he asked me to put Pisetas in the till. Uh, no can do! He started yelling and screaming at me, and all these sweet little old ladies started dipping in the purses and paid my fare. I was mortified, and most grateful.
When we got to the town, the driver was still glaring at the stupid American, so I left in a hurry and walked downhill toward the water with my old boy scout backpack. But I reached the shoreline, and there wasn't a ship in sight. We were scheduled to sail the next day, and I didn't have an address, a phone number, or a clue what to do. And it was beginning to rain. I climbed a small hill, hoping to see a ship from that higher vantage point. Nope. Nada. At this point, I was beginning to cry and started praying, "God, please, PLEASE send me somebody with a map." I looked up from praying and was looking at an older couple approaching me with a big folded paper in their hand. "Um... EXCUSE me. Do you have a map?" They were British tourists, and they did. They gave it to me and told me I needed to go to Tenerife, over the mountain. They talked me out of trying to hike it to save money, and pointed me back to town again, where I promptly got lost. I had not paid attention to directions from the bus station, because, why should I? Now I needed a bus, and didn't even know the word for bus station. So who to ask? I saw a couple of girls walking towards me, and felt like God was nudging me to ask them. "Can you tell me where the bus station is?" They were German, spoke great English, and pointed out the bus station for me-- directly across the street from where I was asking the question. Embarrassing! (Thanks God.) I changed money, bought a ticket, and sat down to wait.
By this point, I was plenty stressed. I started praying, "God, please send me somebody from YWAM? Please send me somebody from YWAM?" I looked up and saw a platinum blond with a backpack who was staring at me. We both said "YWAM?" at the same time. It was one of my future classmates, from Norway. We happily rode together, and I saw how rough the hike would have been, and I was SO grateful the British couple had prevailed on me to take the bus!
We arrived in Tenerife, walked out of the bus terminal and saw big white cruise ships in both directions, as far as the eye could see. Ok God, which way? The word "Right" came to mind, so we started walking to the right, past ship after ship. Eventually, the Anastasis came into view, about 200 yards across the water from us with no visible way to get there. Despair was creeping in again, and we heard an audible voice behind us. "Oh, you're going to the Anastasis. I'll take you there." It was another future classmate, from the Netherlands. We arrived safe and sound.
Sometimes though, we navigate in the wrong direction. As I look at this picture of the map and compass below, I notice that it's not oriented correctly. The map and the compass are out of sync with each other. To properly orient map and compass, (simplified version) you place the compass next to the north arrow on the map, and then rotate the map under the compass until the north arrow on the map is lined up with the north arrow of the compass. Once this is done, you find the bearing on the compass which points to the destination you want to go to on the map, and that tells you which way to walk to take you there.
You will notice in the below picture that the place names are pointed up in the picture, so north is correct from the photographer's perspective, but the north arrow of the compass is pointing down and to the left. Nearly the opposite of what is should be. If you try to navigate in this way, you will be going in the wrong direction! (Have you met my friend Jonah, who deliberately took ship to Tarshish, heading in the opposite direction from Nineveh, where God TOLD him to go preach?)
I am thinking of the scene from the movie The Raiders of The Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones and his buddy Sallah are trying to find the Cave of Lost Souls. They have directions from the headpiece that fits on the priest's rod and the light shines through the headpiece onto the map and shows them were to dig. They suddenly realize that the Nazi's were going off the burned imprint of the headpiece in the Gestapo agent's hand, which didn't contain the critical step from the OTHER side of the headpiece, to take two steps back first. And they realized with sudden joy "THEY'RE DIGGING IN THE WRONG PLACE!"
Sometimes in our lives, we get dis-ORIENTED. Our own map and God's compass, the Bible, don't line up with each other. That's how we get disoriented. And it can lead to us digging in the wrong place. So my prayer today is that we each do a compass check. We carefully evaluate our lives by comparing it to the True North shown in God's word. And if changes are needed to come back into alignment, that we make them with gladness.
And that we will hear that voice behind us saying, "This is the way, walk in it."
Comentarios