I was looking for a street the other day. I hadn’t had time to fire up the GPS in my truck, and anyway I knew about where the street was. My wife and I were in a semifamiliar neighborhood, looking for a relocation sale (that’s a fancy name for a garage sale).
We wanted to stop by and see if there was anything we “needed.” Before I could consult the genius road map on the dash of my truck, my wife pointed to a lady who was jogging and said, “Why don’t you ask her where it is?”
As a typical man, I rebuffed her and said, “I’m not asking her for directions!”
I figured I could find the location eventually.
I was perfectly willing to drive around until I found the street on my own. And if I couldn’t find it by my own doing, then I would punch in the street name on the GPS and step-by-step instructions would pop up immediately.
Life can sometimes be like that. I encounter many people who seem to be wandering around looking for something: meaning in life, the road to success, their purpose in life.
Many of them don’t want to stop and ask for directions, preferring instead to find the answers on their own or perhaps hoping that the answers they crave can be found by using some new iPhone application.
At times in my own life, I have wanted someone to give me step-by-step instructions for some of life’s greatest quests — “Should I take this job?,” “Is this the one I am supposed to marry?,” “When is a good time to start a family?,” “What is the purpose of my life anyway?”
I never received a clear response on any of my questions until I made the decision to ask someone for directions. Now, every day of my life, I ask God to guide me through life, consulting His Word and spending time in prayer to understand how I can find my way through life.
The Book of Proverbs tells us that if we trust the Lord with all of our heart, then He will make our paths straight (Prov. 3:5–6). In other words, God will guide us, giving our lives meaning and purpose.
Go ahead, ask for directions and trust God to direct your paths. It never hurts to ask.
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