Can You Give Me Directions?
Illustration
Stories
The other day, I went in search of a long leaf pine. There are big loblolly pines in front of our house. Last month, the biggest was hit by lightning. It’s still hanging in there, but it reminded me that to be a good steward, I need to plant as well as appreciate. Long leaf pine is the state tree. It’s indigenous. So, I searched.
I went to the closest nursery and asked if they had any. The following conversation ensued. “No, but Logan’s, down the road does.” “How do I get there?” “Here’s the address, use your car’s GPS.” “Don’t have one. Can you give me directions?”
The three people behind in the store are nice folks. They’re friendly, helpful, cheerful, smart, know their stuff, and they were flummoxed by my request. We modern folk, at least most of us, are lost without our technology. We don’t know where we are, the GPS does. And we don’t know where we’re going, we let the machine tell us. My son calls it the ‘babe in the dashboard syndrome’. She knows where we are and where we’re going and how to get there. We’re dumb and getting dumber.
The blues that Job is singing, lifts up a cry, “Hey God! Have you forgotten me? Ya know, me? This real good guy who’s been faithful and honest and followed all the rules? I flipped on my God Positioning System, I did all the stuff I’m supposed to, and where are you? “Oh, that I knew where I might find God.” It seems God went out for a lunch break and forgot to come back to work. It seems we’ve expected God to handle our lives, where we are, where we’re going, and we’ve neglected to claim any responsibility for handling such minor details, like living and dying.
Those nice folk in the store finally did figure out how to get to Logan’s, the tree place, and how to communicate it to me. They’d all been there several times. So, they went through the process, ‘Down to the second light’, ‘No, the first light…’ etc. They had a good old-fashioned conversation, used a pencil and paper, wrote their decisions down, and handed them to me. It seems they could figure out where they were and where they were going after all. It just needed some group work. ‘For God so loved the world he sent a committee.’
Life doesn’t hand you answers, and if you expect it to, you’re basically lost. The “babe in the dashboard” is ominously silent. But if you work on it, maybe with a few friends, you can figure out a lot of the issues that are in your way. And then perhaps get on down the road.
The most common mistake most of us make about God, is that we assume it’s God’s fault. The machine’s busted or God’s absent or doesn’t care or doesn’t exist. After all, if God knew what God was doing, I wouldn’t have these problems, Joe Shmo wouldn’t be such a lousy president, my kids would get better grades, my boss wouldn’t be such an idiot, and my husband wouldn’t have forgotten our anniversary, again. If God existed, God ought to get a GPS.
Sounds to me like we’ve got the whole thing backwards. At the end of Job, God speaks, “Where were you when I made the universe?”
I think we need to spend some time considering the universe and our place in it. We need to pay more attention to the creation we’ve been given rather than being in such a hurry to get from here to there when we’re not even clear where here or there is.
The ones we call wise are always telling us to seek humility, to stay in touch with each other and with God, and in gratitude to avoid taking the gifts we’ve been given for granted. Sounds to me like they know where they are and where they’re going.
I did make it to Logan’s, and I did get the tree. Now I need to plant it, take care of it, and be patient. We’ll get there.
*****************************************
StoryShare, October 10, 2021 issue.
Copyright 2021 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
I went to the closest nursery and asked if they had any. The following conversation ensued. “No, but Logan’s, down the road does.” “How do I get there?” “Here’s the address, use your car’s GPS.” “Don’t have one. Can you give me directions?”
The three people behind in the store are nice folks. They’re friendly, helpful, cheerful, smart, know their stuff, and they were flummoxed by my request. We modern folk, at least most of us, are lost without our technology. We don’t know where we are, the GPS does. And we don’t know where we’re going, we let the machine tell us. My son calls it the ‘babe in the dashboard syndrome’. She knows where we are and where we’re going and how to get there. We’re dumb and getting dumber.
The blues that Job is singing, lifts up a cry, “Hey God! Have you forgotten me? Ya know, me? This real good guy who’s been faithful and honest and followed all the rules? I flipped on my God Positioning System, I did all the stuff I’m supposed to, and where are you? “Oh, that I knew where I might find God.” It seems God went out for a lunch break and forgot to come back to work. It seems we’ve expected God to handle our lives, where we are, where we’re going, and we’ve neglected to claim any responsibility for handling such minor details, like living and dying.
Those nice folk in the store finally did figure out how to get to Logan’s, the tree place, and how to communicate it to me. They’d all been there several times. So, they went through the process, ‘Down to the second light’, ‘No, the first light…’ etc. They had a good old-fashioned conversation, used a pencil and paper, wrote their decisions down, and handed them to me. It seems they could figure out where they were and where they were going after all. It just needed some group work. ‘For God so loved the world he sent a committee.’
Life doesn’t hand you answers, and if you expect it to, you’re basically lost. The “babe in the dashboard” is ominously silent. But if you work on it, maybe with a few friends, you can figure out a lot of the issues that are in your way. And then perhaps get on down the road.
The most common mistake most of us make about God, is that we assume it’s God’s fault. The machine’s busted or God’s absent or doesn’t care or doesn’t exist. After all, if God knew what God was doing, I wouldn’t have these problems, Joe Shmo wouldn’t be such a lousy president, my kids would get better grades, my boss wouldn’t be such an idiot, and my husband wouldn’t have forgotten our anniversary, again. If God existed, God ought to get a GPS.
Sounds to me like we’ve got the whole thing backwards. At the end of Job, God speaks, “Where were you when I made the universe?”
I think we need to spend some time considering the universe and our place in it. We need to pay more attention to the creation we’ve been given rather than being in such a hurry to get from here to there when we’re not even clear where here or there is.
The ones we call wise are always telling us to seek humility, to stay in touch with each other and with God, and in gratitude to avoid taking the gifts we’ve been given for granted. Sounds to me like they know where they are and where they’re going.
I did make it to Logan’s, and I did get the tree. Now I need to plant it, take care of it, and be patient. We’ll get there.
*****************************************
StoryShare, October 10, 2021 issue.
Copyright 2021 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
