Friday, February 17, 2012

I am what one would call technologically challenged. I have a "smart phone" that is smarter than me! A task on the computer that would take someone ten minutes to do, I can count on spending a day trying to figure out. Last year Chuck and I were taking one of our road trips. His son gave us his GPS to take along in case we wanted to use it. No surprise that I could not figure it out. Oh, I got it turned on and put our distination in and it seemed to work fine until I pushed some button or the other and, well..... we got to our distination with no problem. We used the good old navigation system. It is called a MAP! What is a GPS anyhow? "The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or ..." This is from wikipedia. It is a great devise that will give you directions. It even talks to you. You can use a good GPS to help you find hotels, restaurants, and any number of places. It can show you road conditions, traffic, places where you may be slowed down due to road construction. What a great devise to have to make life easier. When I moved to Nashville for a year, and I would try to find a place that I had to go, I would get directions from my daughter or son-in-law. Many times I would call Ernie and say "Hey, I am ..., how do I get to ..." and he would talk me through it, give me directions or get me "unlost"! I was talking to a friend once when I lived there and they said that the first thing they did when they moved to Nashville was buy a GPS and it was great. That was how they learned their way around Nashville. I laughed and told them that Ernie was my GPS. I was only half joking. I was afraid to get one, afraid that I could not figure it out. Should be really easy to use. But as I said, I am technologically challenged. I am a very spiritual person. I believe in God. I believe he knows us. He is always with us. He guides us. Somehow he gets us where we belong. Where he wants us to be. I pray daily for his guidance. I had a very difficult year last year. I was unemployed for most of the year, had some pretty serious "money problems". So what? Don't we all? I found myself praying desperately to God to please guide me and tell me what he wanted for my life, to tell me where he wanted me to be. I was on the verge of loosing my home. I was not sure if I should stay in Ohio or move somewhere else. One night I was absoluutely desperate. I was angry at circunstances, at not being able to find a job. I felt totally lost. (Are you getting the connection yet?) I cried out to God in my despair. I think the prayer was something like this: "God I am just a stupid human. I am asking for your guidance. Please tell me where you want me. Tell me what you want me to do. I know you answer prayers, but I am not understanding what you are trying to tell me. You need to hit me in the head or something. Please tell me what you want me to do. Just talk to me"! When I woke up the next morning I could "hear" God very clearly say to me "You are exactly where I want you". When I say I could "Hear" God I do not mean that I hear his voice. It is more like I hear it in my heart. How ever it is that I hear Him, I know it is Him. I have heard Him before. Usually when I am at my lowest. This time, though, what I heard made me very angry. I ranted at him, "So I am where you want me? You want me here, loosing my house, broke, out of savings, retirement all spent. Nothing left? This is where you want me? Then a calm came over me. I asked Him for guidance, and to talk to me. He did. If I was where He wanted me then so be it. If He leads me to it, He will lead me through it! Well, long story short, life turned around. This morning when I woke up the thought came to me that we all have a GPS. God. He is our navigation system. We need to learn to listen. Just ask him for the guidance, and direction, and follow Him. He will show us the way. We may second guess Him. Wonder why He sends us down a certain path. We may think that it would just be so much faster if we just go our own way instead of following His chosen path for us. But ALWAYS when we do that we end up backtracking. It may seem like the "long way around" but it is that way for a reason. A lesson to be learned, or perhaps he sends us on what seems like a "long" way, because he is guiding us around a danger zone. Whatever it is, I am so very happy to know that I have a GPS that gets me through anything and always gets me where I need to be. And I am not too technologically challenged to be able to use it!

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