Monday Memo

by Steve May

I got off the plane, got into my rental car, and began driving around a city I thought I knew. After a few blocks of turning this way and that, seeing none of the places I expected to see, I was thinking I might be lost.  Another 15 minutes and I was sure.

I called my son, who was expecting me later in the day, and explained my predicament. He asked where I was and I confessed that I had no idea, but assured him that eventually I would find my way out. He said, “Too bad you didn’t think to rent a car with GPS.”

It was one of those ‘duh’ moments. My car did come with a portable GPS unit, but it was still in the glove compartment. I hadn’t even thought of it. I pulled over, plugged it in, entered the address I was looking for, and within a minute a friendly voice in the little box was directing me to the right place. I actually doubted the directions a couple of times, but it turns out that the GPS knew the way better than me. Eventually I heard the words, “Arriving at destination on left…”

It reminds me of what we so often do. We think we know how to get where we want to go, but get lost with our own dumb decisions. Then we get even more lost with even dumber decisions. All the time we have a place we can go for directions, but for some reason we neglect to look.

The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” (Psalm 32:8)

God has promised to guide us step by step through this journey, through our relationships and through our careers and through our finances and through our personal lives. He speaks to us through his Word and through the wisdom of spiritual leaders. Too often we neglect to listen, preferring to keep making wrong turns instead.

If you’re feeling a little lost in some areas of life, and the turns you take keeping leading you where you don’t want to be, stop for a moment today, and open your heart to his voice. Let his Word direct you to the next step you need to take. He will guide you along the best pathway for your life.

American author Iving Kristol said, “Being frustrated is disagreeable, but the real disasters of life begin when you get what you want.”

This is because what we want — or what we think we want — is so often not what we really need in order to live a fulfilled, meaningful life. There comes a time when we realize that the trinket we worked so hard to aquire, or even the goal we sacrificed so much to reach, doesn’t bring the satisfaction we expected it could. We then find ourselves asking, as so many have, “Is that all there is? Is this as good as it gets?”

Goals will always have a place in our lives, and accumulating possessions will always be part of the human experience, but we serve ourselves best the sooner we understand that these things will never be enough. We serve ourselves best when we are learn, as Augstine said, “Our hearts are restless, until they rest in thee.”

Where are you seeking your rest today? In a paycheck? In a relationship? In a status symbol? In a measure of success? These things may not be the enemy — they’re not bad in and of themselves — but it’s important that we understand that they’re not the finish line, either. If your heart is restless today, take a moment to re-evaluate what you really want. Strive to say, as David said, “My soul finds rest in God alone.”