Maps

 

While I was out for a run this morning I looked ahead and saw a car, a large truck, and another car, all with flashing yellow lights on top as they headed towards town. It was a truck with an oversize load and two escort vehicles, one in front and one behind. I moved to the far side of the soft shoulder as they approached and then passed me. A minute later I turned around and headed back into town.

I turned left at the first intersection when I got to town and when I looked down the road I saw the escort cars and truck, about a half-mile away, stopped on the side of the road. As I drew closer they were beginning the process of getting turned around and as I continued my run I looked over to the US highway leaving town and saw them on it. My guess is that as they came into town they knew there was a left turn coming up and for unknown reasons turned at the first opportunity rather than the second. Instead of staying on the highway they took a road that looked similar but headed to a different destination. Perhaps they misread their map.

Maps are quite useful. We may have lived in a place many years and know all of the streets and locations within our community, so that we can get around just fine by memory. But when we go to places that are less familiar, or perhaps completely unknown to us, then a good map and the ability to understand and follow it become essential. And with the arrival of the smartphone having quick access to a good map is very easy.

In a similar manner there are many ways in which having something similar to a map is useful, and even essential, for guidance through life. We progressed through childhood and adolescence with guidance from our families, friends, schools, employers and the culture that we live in. And then as a we head off into life on our own we are free, for better and worse, to look at any given situation and make our own choices as to how to proceed. If your life has been like mine, and I don’t think mine has been particularly unique, there are choices you’ve made that were good and other times where you clearly took a wrong turn. A wrong turn that may have been evident right away, such as the oversize truck this morning, or may have only been clear over time, as that truck driver would have eventually figured out while traveling a road that looked right but really wasn’t.

I confess a bias at this point. The very best “map” that we can use to guide our life each and every day, is God’s word, revealed in the Bible. It is a good and perfect map, but must be used properly in order to be of benefit.

To open it at random and read whatever may be before your eyes may be helpful on rare occasions but is actually quite risky. There is an internet story that strings together several examples of this method that are humorous as they illustrate the hazard of this method.

To read it as someone who doesn’t really believe in God is also not recommended, as it won’t really make any sense. Reading it as an unbeliever may lead you to believe in God and trust in the Lord Jesus, but until that happens your reading will mostly be like road signs in a place where you don’t speak a word of the language. The words may be legible but the things they signify will be incomprehensible.

But to read the Bible as a believer, regularly and methodically, such as reading a particular book from beginning to end, will give you guidance for your life that will always prove to be correct. Read and consider what it is you are reading. Take time to observe what you read. Take time to think about what it might mean. Take time to understand how it might apply to your life. And do all of this prayerfully, asking God to give you understanding, and being willing to follow where He may be leading you. If you’ve never done this the Gospel of John is a great place to start, and to make things easy click on the link to one of many places you can find the Bible online.

Maps help get us to our destination, and there is no better map than the Bible.