Navigation Voices

Having a GPS system is pretty revolutionary. It really does help you along your journey. You can of course always do MapQuest. But the point being - we really all need a little help navigating when on a journey.

What I've enjoyed about our GPS is picking the voice which will be talking us through our journey. I feel like this was an important decision. I didn't want an annoying voice. It obviously couldn't be a foreign language - that just wouldn't be helpful at all. So I picked this gal who must be British or something because when we are in a big city like Minneapolis she will say -- "exit right onto the motorway." Motorway? Who calls it that? I kinda like it! I wish I could remember her name - let's call her Beatrice.

Many times I've thought ---- isn't Beatrice so patient with me. Whenever I make a wrong turn, or several wrong turns. She just simply keeps telling me -- "when possible, please turn around." Often though, I wonder, if I were Beatrice would I be so patient? I hear myself saying to Josh (yes, confession time friends) --- "What are you doing?" What if my GPS system were to say things like --- "What are you thinking?! I told you to make a right turn in 200 yards? What possibly did you not understand?" I'm assuming that the GPS sales would go down drastically if that was what they programmed their devices to say.

All this transferred over to make me think of the other journeys I'm on.

1. Relationally. Am I patient in my relationships? We all make mistakes. Even if we did hear someone ask us a simple request, we may still miss our turn. Sometimes we just need a gentle - "please turn around when possible." So will I be gentle? I would definitely appreciate others being gentle and patient with me.


2. Emotionally. How am I speaking to myself in my brain? May sound weird to you - but it makes perfect sense to me. Is your "GPS Navigation System" in your brain kind to yourself or are you constantly berating yourself? Just as in our relationship with others, we also need to be gentle and patient in our relationship with our self in order to be emotionally healthy.


3. Spiritually. What do you think of when you think of God? Someone saying "What are you doing?" or do you think of a gentle, patient voice that wants to guide you on your journey.