Isaiah Speaks GPS

Several fascinating little things happened on my recent 3-day retreat in Madison WI. First, as I was going through the thoughtful gifts I had received from my team members after leaving my ministry staff position, I came upon a devotional called Streams in the Desert (written by L.B. Cowman, published by Zondervan in 1997, first published in 1925). The fact that I was given this as a gift wasn’t the fascinating part. It was my opening it and reading that day’s devotion that was behavior I normally wouldn’t expect from myself. I’ve always wanted to be a “devotions guy,” but my spiritual disciplines have never been that…disciplined. But in the case of Streams, I was immediately taken by the reading for that day (March 30) and I knew I would read more in the future.

The verse for the day was Isaiah 51:11 – But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment. Having just gone through a year-long process seeking God’s will for the next phase of my ministry and life journey, and having ended that process by following what felt like a very clear leading to leave the church staff position I had held for nearly seven years (a very hard leading to act on for many reasons), I felt God’s hand of affirmation on my shoulder. I needed that affirmation from God. But I also needed (and will always need) the reminder that the only clear path to walk is that which is lit by His light. (Part of what was interesting about that piece of the story is that I discovered the next day that I had actually read the devotion for the WRONG DAY! I read the March 30 devotion on March 31 by accident!)

Finally, in addition to my staff farewell booty, I was for the first time accompanied by a GPS housed in my new phone. I’ve never had nor used a GPS before. But since I wanted to find the hotel without struggle, as well as finding a spice store and a few other somewhat obscure locations, I gave the thing a try. I immediately realized that I would have faced a fair amount of frustration had I relied on my own instincts to get to those places. A map would have helped a little. And MapQuest would have been a good option, but I’ve been misled by that before. But the little voice coming out of my phone was incredible. It knew the names of tiny little obscure streets, it immediately recalculated my route when I foolishly second-guessed it and a flag popped up on the screen when I reached my destinations.

On my second morning in Madison, when I went back to reread the devotion from Isaiah 51 and realized I had read the wrong day, I pondered both the verse and the GPS experience. And I found that God was using both to speak to me. And He was saying the same thing through His Word and the GPS. “Follow me.” “I know the plans I have for you…” “My paths are straight and I’ll shine a light at your feet always.”

Now if I can just keep my ears open for the voice that says, “Recalculating route…make the next legal U-Turn and proceed in the opposite direction,” I might stay on course just a little better and avoid some of the turmoil that comes with providing my own torch!