“May the Master take you by the hand and lead you along the path of God’s love and Christ’s endurance.” 2 Thessalonians 3:5 (MSG)

How is your sense of direction? Not that long ago my wife and I were preparing to go to a birthday party over on the Eastside. I had been experiencing computer trouble that day and had sufficiently messed up our internet connection, and so found myself wondering how I was going to find the location of the birthday party since I could not “MapQuest” the location. Right then my brother-in-law called and asked if we had left yet. They were planning on attending the same party. I told him no, and that I needed help locating where the party was to be held. He gave me directions from his house. I wrote them down quickly, but then thought, this really will not help because we are not leaving from his house. At any rate, we hopped into the car and off we went. It was not until we were on I-520 that I realized it. In my rush to get ready I had left the directions sitting on the desk at home. Now we were already several miles from our home and 15 minutes late for the party. All we had was the invitation, prayer, and my memory…well two out of three is not too bad. As it turned out, after driving around for a while we were able to locate the party and ended up only being about 30 minutes late. It sure would have been easier with a map, but in the end we made it.

Life is tough enough as it is. It is even tougher when we do not know which way to go, or if we start heading the wrong direction, or spend a lot of time going in circles trying to find our destination. One of the things I admire most about Jesus was his ability to stay on target. His life never got off track. Not once do you find him wandering around looking at a map, scratching his head, or lost. He had no money, no computer, no administrative assistant, or staff; yet Jesus did what many of us fail to do. He kept his life on course.

Staying on track can be difficult especially when it is so easy to be distracted. We can help ourselves by asking a few questions: 1) Am I fitting into God’s plan (Romans 8:28; 2 Corinthians 5:20)? 2) What are my longings (Psalm 37:4; Ephesians 2:10)? 3) What are my abilities (Romans 12:3)? And, 4) Am I serving God now (Luke 2:49; Colossians 3:23)? Why not take a few minutes and evaluate your direction? The great thing is that if you need to make a course correction you can. Take the advice from 1 Peter 4:2, and start fresh today.

Thanks for reading!