I read a statistic this week stating that only thirty-four percent of men said they would stop and ask for directions to help them find an address. Before you women start shaking your head and saying, “Men are so bull headed,” let me tell you the same article mentioned that only thirty-seven percent of women would ask for help. It seems we’d all prefer to wander around than admit we don’t know everything.

It reminds me of a trip we took through the South with my parents. Driving through Kentucky, we used back roads because we felt that would give us more of an authentic view of the area than using the commercialized main highways. We did not have a good map, but each of us had an opinion about which way to go.

 We soon found ourselves on a dirt road going past a large, old farmhouse. We could feel the stares of the people lounging on the porch as we drove by. A mile or so beyond the house, the road ended in a cow pasture. We turned the car around and headed back the way we’d come.

This time when we passed the house, there was a man sitting on a lawn chair next to the road. It wasn’t so much that he was sitting on the lawn chair that gave us concern, but that he was balancing a rifle menacingly across his lap. We decided the only safe thing to do was to stop. David maneuvered the car next to the man and rolled down the window. “We’re lost,” he said. “How do we get the next town from here?”

“I thought you might be lost,” drawled the man slowly without moving from his chair or taking his hands from the gun. “This here is our yawd!”

Four intelligent adults and one ten-year-old girl traveling together, and we could not find our way into town. We each voiced our opinion, but we lacked one thing–a knowledgeable guide. It took the man with the rifle, who knew the area well, to tell us accurately how to get where we wanted to go.

We often go through life that way. Instead of admitting that we don’t have all the answers, we blunder around on our own. And if we do ask for help, we often just get the opinions of people who don’t know any more than we do. We need to find a knowledgeable guide, a map, if you will, that will show us accurately the way we need to go.

Bible Thought for the Day:

O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. ⁹⁸Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine. ⁹⁹I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. ¹⁰⁰I understand more than the aged because I have observed Your precepts. ¹⁰¹I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word. ¹⁰²I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, for You Yourself have taught me. ¹⁰³How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! ¹⁰⁴From Your precepts I get understanding; therefore, I hate every false way. ¹⁰⁵Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalms 119:97-105

Dear Father-God,

How can I thank you enough for the marvelous gift you’ve given to me–your written Word. I wouldn’t know who you are or what your will is if you hadn’t told me. The world says it’s a book of wise sayings, a guide for loving our fellow man. It’s so much more–the very God-breathed truth about all of life. Jesus’ love and sacrifice for my sin would be unknown without it.  Through its pages I begin to understand your heart, appreciate your love, realize your power and majesty. Because of your Word, I learn how to come into a personal relationship with you and live daily in your very presence. 

Your Word is life, truth, and reality. Yet I so often neglect it, trying to find a path of my own, living by my wits instead of your will. God, bring to my mind the things you’ve said when my feet wander from you. Place in my heart an insatiable desire for your Word, a passion for truth and a never-ending longing to walk closely with you.  Amen