I love a google map when I’m going on a journey. I lean on google map wisdom rather heavily and when (as it always does in Milton Keynes) the signal fails I feel bereft and slightly panicky.
The thing about google maps is that it is better than reading an actual map because.....
- it really doesn’t take a lot of effort
- it will guide you without you having to develop a system of post it notes/very large passenger seat instructions/memory techniques etc to get you to your destination
- and best of all it helps you to avoid obstacles/traffic jams/closed roads/crashes to get to your destination on time and will even reroute you if something unexpected turns up.
I was sitting talking to a friend yesterday about life and how we deal with those times when something floors us because the getting knocked down and getting up again is really hard sometimes (despite how easy chumbawumba makes it seem). We reflected on how life is not like google maps. It takes effort, navigation isn’t always straight forward and that obstacles inevitably get in our way - often smacking us right in the face.
Wouldn’t it be good if we could sail in through the google map way? The promises that many of us were made when we were growing up were that if we choose the right route it’ll be ok....
As we head into a new year with expectations perhaps, or a skeleton map - as we long for a bit of simplicity and an obvious bit of direction - as the google map dream is only that and will never be anything more..... there is much more, we reflected, that we can rely on.
Where we are worried that we are in and perhaps the cause of the mess of it all there are those around us who know us who can tell us what the true story is - listen to them - they may have something to say that will be better than the lost post it note.
Where everything appears to have come to a halt or crashed due to no fault of our own - where we are limping or injured or simply at a loss, sometimes digging out takes time - it’s ok to pause for a while to deal with the debris around and sometimes the clear up takes longer than we might imagine. Sit still for a while and find the right people to sit by you and gradually work through all the stuff.
When the way ahead is uncertain, take it one signpost at a time. Each wrong move, wrong turn, is a learning experience and retreating to where you were before is not always a bad thing because a new route will present new opportunities.
And learn to trust - trust your own instincts - you may get lost for a while but you’ll find your way back..... trust those who know you - they may have seen exactly what you’ve missed..... and mostly - trust God - he knows better than all of us the way out of the stuff - and it might be the exact route that Google maps in its search for the easy obvious way desperately wants you to avoid.
May 2020 be a year of discovery, recovery, hope and blessing
The thing about google maps is that it is better than reading an actual map because.....
- it really doesn’t take a lot of effort
- it will guide you without you having to develop a system of post it notes/very large passenger seat instructions/memory techniques etc to get you to your destination
- and best of all it helps you to avoid obstacles/traffic jams/closed roads/crashes to get to your destination on time and will even reroute you if something unexpected turns up.
I was sitting talking to a friend yesterday about life and how we deal with those times when something floors us because the getting knocked down and getting up again is really hard sometimes (despite how easy chumbawumba makes it seem). We reflected on how life is not like google maps. It takes effort, navigation isn’t always straight forward and that obstacles inevitably get in our way - often smacking us right in the face.
Wouldn’t it be good if we could sail in through the google map way? The promises that many of us were made when we were growing up were that if we choose the right route it’ll be ok....
As we head into a new year with expectations perhaps, or a skeleton map - as we long for a bit of simplicity and an obvious bit of direction - as the google map dream is only that and will never be anything more..... there is much more, we reflected, that we can rely on.
Where we are worried that we are in and perhaps the cause of the mess of it all there are those around us who know us who can tell us what the true story is - listen to them - they may have something to say that will be better than the lost post it note.
Where everything appears to have come to a halt or crashed due to no fault of our own - where we are limping or injured or simply at a loss, sometimes digging out takes time - it’s ok to pause for a while to deal with the debris around and sometimes the clear up takes longer than we might imagine. Sit still for a while and find the right people to sit by you and gradually work through all the stuff.
When the way ahead is uncertain, take it one signpost at a time. Each wrong move, wrong turn, is a learning experience and retreating to where you were before is not always a bad thing because a new route will present new opportunities.
And learn to trust - trust your own instincts - you may get lost for a while but you’ll find your way back..... trust those who know you - they may have seen exactly what you’ve missed..... and mostly - trust God - he knows better than all of us the way out of the stuff - and it might be the exact route that Google maps in its search for the easy obvious way desperately wants you to avoid.
May 2020 be a year of discovery, recovery, hope and blessing
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