Is God your GPS?

I was chillin' out in Christie Pitts last night with a friend of mine. It's been so long since I've been to that park. It was a beautiful evening. The weather was spot on - not a cloud in the sky. Not too hot, not too cool. Enjoyed looping around the park area, following the labyrinth in and out of the middle, finding a quiet spot on the hillside and watching the baseball game taking place under the field lights, a small crowd of devoted fans speckled through the stands and up the hillside.

We spent our time catching up and talking about anything and everything. Eventually we got onto the topic of making decisions in life and if they are the right ones or whatnot, and ultimately the idea of regret.

Now, I'm a Christian. I only really came into my faith by choice when I was 23. I was raised in a Catholic household, went to catholic schools my whole life up to and including high school - but mainly because all the french schools were catholic in earlton & north bay, but I had some bad experiences with the Catholic faith - or at least the parishes that we attended. And it was enough to make me feel empty and really uninterested in continuing a life that felt more like a routine then a true worship of God.

ANYWAY - so at 23, I started attending Freedomize Toronto and through my experiences at that church and in God's time, I found a personal relationship with God.

All that just to explain my following analogy. God is the creator and center of my life. What I do every day - He knows. He sees. He smiles at my triumphs, He frowns at my mistakes, but He forgives and loves unconditionally. And in return, I am called to do the same! It's such a beautiful relationship - and anyone can have that relationship with God, which is simply incredible!

So when my friend (who is also a Christian) and I were chatting about mistakes of the past, I told him that the best way to look at how God treats our regrets, past mistakes and ultimately our free will - is by thinking about a GPS. And in my case, I picture my parent's GPS. The broken thing that calls drives (shortened to dr.) - doctors, and mumbles and mispronounces to a great point of amusement while listening to the darn thing. The same GPS that tells you to drive 300m then pull a u-turn, and if you don't listen, shortens the distance and encourages you to drive 200m then pull a u-turn.

So this classic robotic female voice tries to get you from A to B. And you listen and try to adhere to the path she has chosen. Then - oops - you miss a turn, or by choice (because you aren't controlled by the GPS, it is only a guide) chose to go straight instead of turning right. The next thing your GPS will probably do is say "recalculating". And the computer reassesses your route and tries to give you new coordinates and a new path to get you back on the right track.

That's basically what God does. Sort of. He gave humanity the Word. The most read book on this planet, the Bible. In it, you will see the story and the history of humanity. The good, the bad, the miraculous. It is essentially our guide. Our GPS. Here, laid out in every language possible, the Word of God is before our eyes. All we have to do is read it, contemplate it, understand it, and apply it.

But being humans, we also have free will. We aren't tied down to anything so to speak (except maybe gravity - but astronauts would disagree). We can choose whether or not we want to follow the Word or step away from God. We can choose to love our neighbour, or support gossip groups. We can choose to be a light in another's life, or put them down and take away joy.

Being humans, we aren't perfect. No one walking this earth's surface is. And through our lives we will faulter. We will fail ourselves, fail our families, fail our friends, fail our work, fail our community and fail strangers. BUT, we are always loved, always cherished, always forgiven for our sins! With that hope, we pick ourselves back up and do good in the world.

In this way, God is kind of like a GPS system. He sees a great future for each and every one of us - a path so to speak. We try hard to follow it, but sometimes try to take short cuts cause they looked like fun or looked really scenic, or we make wrong turns. When you fall off the route, your GPS isn't going to bail on you - your GPS is going to help you find your way back home. God will look at where you are in your path's diversion, and get you back on track as soon as possible.

that's a promise He brings to us.

He is always recalculating our steps. So that following our path will ultimately lead to love, to blessings, to happiness, to Him.

Beautiful!