Have you ever heard the expression “directionally challenged?” Reading this expression might make you smile as you think about yourself or someone you know who seems to have problems with directions. The phrase hints that someone has difficulty in figuring out where they parked their car … which way to turn to get to a specific location, etc. I know a number of people who fit this description and this is not intended to be a criticism of them. They just don’t do well with direction!
In a very real sense … every one of us is directionally challenged! Left to our own imaginations, feelings, emotions we are like someone walking around in life with no sense of direction or guidance. Have you ever felt that way? I know I have!
Read the words of the Psalmist recorded in Psalm 19 … all fourteen verses … and read them slowly and carefully … even out loud! Do you see the truths being expressed by David? Do you want to see them? Surely you do! Do you remember them from days gone by? Refresh your memory! The fact is … we all need a word from the Lord!
The people of the Lord have relied on the Lord’s guidance from Israel of old to the cyberspace age of our time! God’s Word doesn’t change! We may change … our values may even change. But the Word of God is the compass that will always bring us back to true North where proper direction, location, and safety can be found!!
So, allow me to ask just a few questions for all of us to consider:
- What is going to be the final authority for your life? Your go-to source for direction?
- When it comes to establishing a standard for morality in this wicked world … what’s going to be your ruler or measurement to determine your choice?
- Where do you look to in the determination of what’s right or wrong?
- Do you always allow God’s Word to be the ethical compass that helps you find your way out of an ethical jungle?
- Where is your NORTH?
- When you find yourself or a loved one or close friend or brother or sister in Christ being tossed to and fro on a stormy and churning sea of emotions … which lighthouse shows you where to find the shore?
I’ve seen enough of man’s wisdom and where it leads to know that it can’t be trusted! We all need truth! We need God’s ‘yes’ and God’s ‘no’! There is NO more reliable authority on earth than God’s Word, the Bible, to live our life by! We have in the Bible the Book that God wrote and it contains His mind and His will … and it has been written and preserved in written form and in language that all of us may understand!
It was Jesus Himself who said in John 17:17, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth.” So for the ‘directionally challenged’ that lies within each of us (Jeremiah 10:23), here’s the answer to the questions we just asked by the writer of Psalm 119, “… “But your servant meditates on Your statutes. Your testimonies also are my delight And my counselors.”
Can you make this claim for yourself? May the Lord help each and every one of us to realize as the words of the old hymn read, ‘My hope is built on nothing less that Jesus’ blood and righteousness … Someone might even ask, ‘what difference does all of this make?’ The answer is the difference between eternal life and eternal destruction!
Bill Fairchild, Jr.
Thanks for the thoughts. I saw a sign in front of a church building last week that said… “If God is your co-pilot, switch seats”. I had not heard that before, but think it fits with your message.