GPS

Unlike our trip in 2003, this time we have a GPS which allows us to find where we’re going as well as nearby restaurants, gas stations, theaters, etc. On our second day we discovered the limitation of the GPS. No big picture. We were getting low on fuel and getting hungry. We asked the GPS to find us the nearest gas station and we followed the directions. The problem was, as it turned out, that the nearest gas station was 5 miles east of the highway in Logandale, Nevada. Had we had a map along, we would have noticed that just 6 miles north was a smallish town where we could have stopped for gas and for dinner. In fact, we did have dinner there.

There were other times we wondered where we were in the journey. The GPS would tell us how long until we arrived at our destination, but it didn’t tell us what was just beyond the 3.5 inch map on the screen. We had no sense of the bigger picture. It created a type of tunnel vision.

In the same way, we need other believers who help us see the bigger picture. How easily we get focused on the details, missing the fact that if we would simply invite another Christian into our life, they might be able to point out that if we simply continue the direction we’re going we’ll actually save time or energy. Or they may know that taking the trip 5 miles east will actually save us 20¢ a gallon (which it did). While we have very clear instructions in Scripture, it’s helpful to have those who have walked before us to help us see the larger context of the truth.