Navigational Errors

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace.  Romans 8:5-6

I go on a lot of road trips, traversing through Michigan’s back roads and countryside. Most of the time it’s with an easy attitude of exploration, just out there to see what’s there and not really concerned with a destination. But there are times when the routes need to be planned…or we need to find our way home and when those times come we turn to our trusty road atlas. Our Michigan road atlas has gotten us home plenty of times, but even it doesn’t always tell us everything we need to know. There have been times when the atlas shows a big road and it’s more like a deer path in real life. Or times when we pass a road driving but the atlas swears there is nothing there. My favorite time was when I navigated us all this section of Michigan trying to find a mountain that the atlas swore was there and we never saw a thing. There are times when I think that atlas is more trouble than its worth.

Yesterday I made a concentrated effort to praise God. When I went for a walk I praised God for the cold weather and the fact that cars didn’t hit me. When I drove downtown I praised God for the chance to see the sunrise. When I did laundry I praised God for the fact that I had working legs to go downstairs (okay, laundry is not my favorite task…it was hard). I praised Him for things that went well or didn’t go so well, I praised Him for people and situations and finally I just praised Him for giving me the chance to do so. It was amazing how much better my day went, how much better my attitude was. Things that would have normally tripped me up just didn’t. Since my heart was focused on praising God, my head didn’t have a chance to steer me wrong. God has pointed out pretty plainly in scripture how to live by the Spirit, how to have peace by focusing our hearts on Him and despite knowing that I still spend plenty of time trying to navigate my own way. Maybe it’s time I let someone else drive.