Friday, January 5, 2018

wanna get lost, trust a GPS














I wish to go on record as a low tech guy.  I am slowly adapting via Triumph to ride by wire, programmable traction control and engine mapping, and ABS.  Slowly.  In our 2015 Mustang you have more gauge info than anyone should be allowed to read while driving, more entertainment than info.  From heated grips, to cruise control on my newest bikes, I am adapting.  Seems now the latest point of contention is the size of the screen on your motorcycle, where the clocks in Britianese used to be.  Spending 2000 miles on new Street Triple RS with them, and a joy stick, they were actually easy to navigate with.  Seems the line I drew in the sand has moved, or is it me, but one line I refuse to cross is using a GPS.  I’m a map guy, and have even been known to stop under pressure and ask directions, but every time follow someone on a GPS. they get lost, or we do.  On one ride with four of us, after the same street looked familiar after the third trip past it, we headed down a side street and saw the diner, and were about to eat when our fearless leader on is GPS finally arrived.  On one trip in the Mustang using Theresa’s cell with GPS, we followed it into a neighborhood, telling us we had arrived, with no sign of at the country club in sight.  Backtracking and seeing fairways, within 30 seconds we were parked and ready to eat.  Even I know my right from my left without letters on each glove to remind me.  And last week, again following the GPS, we could see our destination, only the road it told us to take didn’t exist.  Some quick thinking, aka common sense, got us there in a few minutes.   Some swear by the GPS, I swear at it!
My first experience with the GPS was over 20 years ago in off road racing in Mexico, and it was cool.  You could keep tabs on where the race cars were, and dispatch a pit crew if needed.  But yet somehow those in a GPS-less ride still finished.  On a course that was pre-run, with directions given.  With GPS coordinates for the wealthy.  But it always comes down to one thing when you get lost, one question we ask when calling the place we want to be at, after telling them we are lost they ask “where are you?”  And my first thought is “if I knew where I was I wouldn’t be lost,” but maintaining cool, give an intersection, usually to find I am close, or within a time zone. 
The first question God asked Adam in the Bible was “where are you?”  He knew, he wanted Adam to see where he was and how he had fallen.  God saw him hiding in the bushes, he thought no one could see him or what he had done.  God could have asked him “how did you get there, what were you doing, what has happened to you?” but he chose to zero in on their relationship, and asked simply “where are you?”  And the excuses, and lies followed.  Sin had taken him on new course, and without God, he had no way of escape.  And today we all suffer from the sin of the first Adam.  But Jesus makes it all right, if we ask “where are you?”  Or in the words of Jesus, the first ones spoken in John, he asks the two future disciples, after being identified as the lamb of God, “what do you want?”  So, what do you want from Jesus? 
Remarkably the first words of Jesus come in the form of a question, so how would you answer, what do you want from God?  Before you answer, consider the answer you may give, and how Jesus will answer it.  Scripture tells us he will give us our hearts desire, and when he is our hearts desire, we are wide open to the leading of the spirit.  When it is all about us, we are following our own desires, and would you follow another lost person if you are lost?  Funny how when we panic, all buildings, all trees, and all roads look the same.  If only we stop and ask Jesus, it would make things a lot easier.  But then we need to follow his directions, I knew there would be a hard part.  But that is where faith comes in, and trust builds.  But when meeting the two men, he asked what, not who do you seek.  Today men seek a what, when they need a who, but Jesus asks differently, he makes them think, and he confronts them with what they really seek or want.  What do you really want, that is the most important question in life.  Which later was followed up by Jesus to Peter, brother of one of the two, when he asked “who do you say I am?”  And Peter answered rightly,”you are the Christ, the son of the living God.”  So what do you really want from life, and who do you say Jesus is?    Your answer may have eternal ramifications.
You see God knows just where you are, what you want, but most importantly what you need.  When Jesus said “I am the way,” he meant it.  No GPS religion needed, he knows, do we?  So the most important question we need to ask is where are we, Jesus isn’t lost, and he stuck right with us.  We need to see where he is and follow, remember he is the great shepherd, whose job is to lead his sheep.  And who else but the lamb of God would know best what sheep need, who else could be the great shepherd?  And their actions confirmed their words, they followed Jesus.  Before they met him, they knew the answer was him, and they followed, before they spoke, they went with him.  Just like today.....right?
They encountered Jesus on a spiritual level, today churches are filled with physical answers to prayer,and miss the point Jesus was asking about.  Concentrate on the physical, when Jesus warns us the things seen are temporal, the things not seen are eternal.  Do you really trust him who you haven’t seen, but know exists?  Where are you in Christ?  If you don’t know where you are going how will you know when you get there?  Could it be that when the holy spirit comes into your life you have the most high tech device that will ever be formed, at your disposal?  Yet too many settle for a 3x5 inch screen for direction in life. 
Even a broken clock is right twice a day, can you afford to take the chance?  Are you filled with information, memorized the word, but yet are lost?  Have you considered the application of what you know, based on who you know and who provided it?  Makes you wonder, if Moses had a GPS, how would it have affected him?  Yet God directed him where he wanted, fed him, and provided shoes that never wore out.  Leading him to where he wanted him to be.  Something to remember next time we ask in prayer, it doesn’t take a Big Mac to be supersized in God’s economy.  Trust Jesus, follow his spirit, and the road you are on just got a lot more exciting and interesting.  Where you are in Christ will tell us a lot about where you are going.  Maybe Jesus was such a low tech guy after all. 
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com