4. Direction and Destination

I kept asking the Lord for direction, and people repeatedly prayed for God’s direction in my life. God does promise to lead, guide, and direct, but I had associated direction with specific detailed instructions, and I began to learn that getting direction from God is less like a map and more like a GPS. 

With a map, you see your starting and ending point and multiple ways to calculate the route. With a GPS, you plug in a destination and then trust the GPS to get you there. The GPS does the calculating and then gives you step by step instructions just as you are ready to receive them. Turn right here. Now, keep left. 

First things first. You can’t steer a parked car. And the rudder only navigates when the boat is moving. In the same way, our first step in being directed by God is to get moving. 

But you also have to plug in a destination. 

Our Christian call is not to a place, but to a person - the person of Jesus Christ. “Follow me,” he says.

You desire direction? You want a destination? The Lord said to me. Follow ME. I am the destination you plug in. I am the direction you are headed. Point the arrow of your life towards me. That is all the direction you need. 

“Let us press on to know him,” the prophet Habakkuk wrote. 

Pointing the arrow of your life towards Christ is a guarantee that you are traveling in the right direction and will end up at the right destination. The other via points and the journey along the way is what makes up this life. 

As you go, you will get specific instructions about where to turn, but not until you need them. When I start to stress about getting to a specific place at a certain time, (like how I was treating my upcoming decision about where in the world to serve God next) I confused the via points with the destination, and God reminds me that the turns and rest stops and detours in my life are not to be confused with the final destination. He is the destination. All other life decisions are via points to get me and the people in the bus with me closer to him. We’re on a journey. 

I’ve been in seasons of life before when I had a big decision in front of me. I fretted and stressed over the thing for a long time, while still seek God’s guidance and trusting him to lead. When the moment of clarity came and the decision was finally made, it was rather anticlimactic. I had anticipated a grand “aha” moment, a rush of excitement, and a real sense of relief. Instead, I realized that the greatest joy and rush and relief had been found in the process of seeking him. So much so that arriving to the point of decision didn’t turn out to be the climax that I thought it would be. The decision passed by quietly, unnoticed, like it wasn’t near as big of a deal as the adventure of seeking God and hearing his voice. I made the decision with a sense of gratitude but also a sense of grief. Now that the decision has been made, will I miss the sweetness of walking so close to the Lord through the darkness? 

It’s like a backpacking trip where you walk fifty miles to get to a destination. When you get there, you feel the initial high of accomplishment, and then the low when you realize the journey is over. 

It’s so much less about the arrival and so much more about the journey. It’s less about the point of decision and more about the process of making that decision. It’s less about the getting there and more about the going to. 

Perhaps the direction we seek in life should be less about the detailed navigational instructions and more about setting the destination of our lives as Jesus Christ. Are our lives leading us closer to Christ? Are we becoming more like him? Maybe God is less concerned about the logistics of the choices we make and more concerned about how our choices shape who we are becoming.