Have you ever thought about how God is like a personal GPS? First, I feel compelled to “out” myself by proclaiming that I am a life-long sufferer of PDI: Pathological Directional Impairment. I cannot find my way out of a paper bag. I cringe when someone says to me, “You can’t miss it.” I can and I will. One reason for living in St. Louis is that I need the Arch to tell me which way is east. That is, until GPS came into my life.

According to Wikipedia, the Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to GPS satellites, providing critical capabilities to military, civil and commercial users around the world. Blah, blah, blah! Just help me get to my daughter’s volleyball game!

The quality I adore most about my GPS is the indefatigable patience of her automated voice. “Turn here.” And, if I miss the turn, which I frequently do, she immediately recalibrates from her celestial vantage point and serenely tells me to “turn there.” She never says, “WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM, YOU SCATTER BRAIN? CAN’T YOU PAY ATTENTION LONG ENOUGH TO DO WHAT I TELL YOU THE FIRST TIME, SINCE I AM YOUR ALL SEEING, ALL KNOWING GUIDE?”

It is that patience that reminds me of how God is our perfect GPS. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) We are all on a journey, and for Christians, the quest is to follow Christ. Just follow our loving Savior … sounds clear, doesn’t it? We are given the directions in the Bible and the power through the Holy Spirit, and yet I have never met anyone who hasn’t gotten lost along the way:

• going off track though rebellion or self absorption
• veering off course through addiction
• getting stuck in depression
• following other lost people

Then, like the Prodigal Son who realizes his folly, we set out to seek our forgiving Father. “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8a) Aren’t we grateful that when we turn from our highway to hell, we don’t hear an automated voice saying, “Sorry, you are too far gone. You have blown it. There is no way back from where you are.”

The ultimate Good News is this: as long as you are alive, Jesus will take you back! “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) He is not a dispassionate satellite in space watching us fumble around. He is our GPS – God’s Personal Salvation – praying for us right where we are and waiting patiently for us to reach out to Him, so He can rescue us and get us back on His path.

This week begins a new season of Hidden Heart classes. All of us in one way or another have gone off course of Christ’s command in our relationships: “Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) I can’t wait to see how Jesus is going to love us back on course to the joy, the peace, and the blessing of following Him. It is the only way to hear Him declare one day, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have arrived at your destination.”