The Right Direction

My dad can get you anywhere. Seriously, if I asked him how to get from Olympia, Washington to Tallahassee, Florida, he could tell you exactly how to get there off the top of his head (“I-90 East, then catch I-29 South at Sioux Falls to Kansas City…”).

Most of us don’t have this gift. We just pull out Google Maps and it tells us how to get there, without us having to do any of the planning. Due to the work of some people at Google (people who have a similar gift as my dad), these maps exist and are able to plan out our exact paths, without error.

Of course, every driver makes mistakes, even when the navigation provides us with the exact path. We might get onto the wrong highway, or exit onto the wrong street. We might make a wrong turn and be heading in the direct opposite direction of where we want our destination to be. This is never good, but there is a positive. We can always turn around. No matter how far away from our path we stray, we can always turn around and begin heading towards the destination again. Take a look at the following scripture:

10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 9:10-13 NIV

Jesus did not come for those who don’t need help—he came for those who do. Jesus has our paths set before we came into existence, and they are perfect. They’re the direct path to our destination—our navigation. When we make mistakes and deviate from the path, Jesus is there to forgive us and reconcile us. He’s there to guide us right back to the path He already had in place—just like how Google says “recalculating.”

None of us know how to get to our destination, and we never will exactly. But we do know what our destination is, and that’s to live a Christ-like life, so much so that our actions bleed into others’ lives. So much so that we are a real showing of Jesus’s transformative grace and guidance.

With Him, all things are possible.