Going In Circles
Recently, Jim was honored to speak on a Wednesday night in Louisville, Kentucky. We arrived there on Wednesday afternoon and checked into our motel. We were supposed to meet some dear friends for dinner at 5:30. She had sent me the name of the restaurant with the address, so we left the motel about 5:00 and headed for the restaurant. I had looked up the name of the restaurant and started the directions on my phone, so we had no trouble finding it.
We got there and were seated, just waiting for our friends. She called to say they were almost there, so we were expecting them in just a few minutes. About five minutes later she called and asked, “Are you here?” I said yes, and told her where we were seated. She then said, “No, you’re not.”
Needless to say, we don’t live in a big city like Louisville, so our “doubles” on restaurants are confined to McDonald’s, Burger King, Arby’s…you get the point. We were at the restaurant on Bullitt Lane and they were at the one on Bardstown Road (the one that was close to the church building).
Our time to eat was slipping away, Jim was getting nervous, the traffic was heavy, and our GPS was taking us the wrong direction. We drove through beautiful neighborhoods, down narrow little streets with specialty restaurants, tattoo parlors, etc. Finally, we decided to just stay on the phone with our friends as they directed us toward the church building.
To make a long story short, except for the time we sat in the wrong restaurant, we drove around and around for an hour and a half!! We made it to the church building at 6:30 – no supper for our friends or us. (We did go out for a relaxing dinner after services were over).
I think there are some applications we can make about this experience:
- Sometimes our lives feel just like we are going in circles and we don’t know exactly where we’re headed. We let our daily activities, or other people direct our every move and after a while, we begin to feel like we are going in circles. We become loaded down, tired, anxious, and unhappy with our lives.
- Often, we don’t know where our real destination is. We keep trying to reach goals or levels of accomplishment here on this earth (and there is nothing wrong with setting goals for yourself), but we forget that our most important destination in this life is to travel toward Heaven. Going in circles won’t get you there.
- There is only one set of instructions that will keep you from going in circles – God’s Word. We make time to do all kinds of activities in this life. We work, vacation, attend club meetings, enjoy recreational activities and follow the instructions we get for all of these activities. But do we fail to use the one set of directions that will keep us from going in circles? If I know I want my final destination to be Heaven, I’ll use the only guidebook that will get me there.
We laugh now with our friends about how lost we were while trying to find that restaurant. We laugh over the fact that we saw some things twice…traveling in circles. It will make a fun memory (now that it’s over), and a great illustration.
However, if you aren’t following God’s directions toward your final destination, you might just want to adjust your GPS!
“Make me to know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.” (Psalm 25:4, 5)
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AUTHOR: Donna Faughn
