The voice that leads me

I am completely directionless. As in, I wouldn't know "north" if it bit me on the nose. Not surprisingly, I am terrible at finding places for the first (or second, or third) time. Driving somewhere unfamiliar used to stress me out completely before the advent of the GPS. I can't tell you how many times I have been white-knuckled and on the brink of tears, talking out loud to myself to get where I was going. Ah, but the GPS takes all that stress away. My GPS voice is named "Lee," and he's Australian. I trust him completely. If he says turn, I turn. And I never question him. He knows where I'm going, and I'm more than happy to let him lead the way. And even though he knows how long the whole trip will take and what all the twists and turns are, he only gives me a manageable amount of directions at a time. It never occurs to me that he might take me to the wrong place, though he might occasionally take me by a way I didn't expect. And if I get off the path he lays out for me, he can quickly redirect me and still get me where I need to be. His voice is such a source of comfort, and if he is silent I know it's because I need to just stay the course. However, during our vacation, "Lee" stopped talking completely, and I panicked. How would I be able to manage without him?! I can get by when I'm going somewhere familiar, but I don't want my outings to be limited to the familiar.

Today, I needed to go somewhere unfamiliar, so I carefully turned to "Lee" to see if I could, by some means, get him to talk to me. It turns outs the voice mechanism had somehow been disabled, most likely because of some human error. All I had to do was engage it, and "Lee" was again getting me where I needed to go.

As I drove along, reveling in "Lee's" voice, I realized the amazing amount of faith I put in "Lee." And this led me to realize a wonderful parallel to my spiritual life. The Lord knows the way to where I'm going. He has the whole trip all planned out, though He just gives me the directions I need right now, without showing me the entire roadmap. And that's really all the instruction I can handle. One turn at a time. He may take me down a path I didn't expect, but He always gets me to the destination. I may veer off the course, but He can easily redirect me. His voice is such a comfort. And, if I've obeyed His voice, I can rest in the silent times, knowing that I just need to stay the course. There is a different silence, though, brought on by human error--disobedience and sin. This silence requires me to take some action. It makes me have to spend some time with Him, to figure out what the problem is, to re-engage His voice in my life. I want to put my faith in Him completely. I don't want to question His leading. I just want to listen to His voice and go where He tells me to go.