Thought for the Day - Saturday 6 June

Thought for the Day – Saturday 6^th June

A further thought on following God’s way without the talking donkey!

Here are more wise words from the book of Proverbs – words to be found at Proverbs 3 verses 5-8:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
It will be a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body.

When I lived at the top end of Hamilton it was so much easier and quicker for me to go over to East Kilbride via the back road rather than through the town first, I could be in East Kilbride in minutes. The problem was though that on the very outskirts of East Kilbride this back road involved passing over a very narrow bridge just barely the width of a car and also the road lay at a crazy angle. The bridge therefore, although very short, always had to be negotiated with great care and with great precision because of that crazy angle and narrow width in order to ensure your car made it to the other side with its tyres and wheel rims intact.

Now it may have been a short route to East Kilbride and most days it was but some days it could turn out to be the longest route ever because huge HGV’s would follow their Sat. Nav. and seeing this short route to East Kilbride on their map take that route instead of the main road. Well as you can imagine due to their width they would never be able to cross this bridge but the other problem was because of that crazy angle of the road they would not realise this until it was too late and then there was nowhere for them to turn. So some days you were just stuck with no way to turn yourself until the police arrived to sort out the whole mess.

Eventually a sign was put up by the council further back the road where it was possible to turn saying, “IGNORE SAT. NAV. NARROW BRIDGE AHEAD.”

Now you would think that would have rectified the problem but I have to say while it did reduce the number of incidences when we were stuck some drivers just chose to ignore the sign and ended up blocking the road!

It seems most people today are overly reliant on Sat. Nav. indeed many literally do feel quite lost without it and will follow it slavishly even if their gut feeling is telling them they are heading in the wrong direction. Many report ending up in the wrong town miles away from where they intended because the street names in both towns were exactly the same.  

It really is relatively easy to follow blindly. It requires little effort.

However, that is not the nature of faith.

Our faith demands more investigation on our part that we might be better resourced in our thinking and then enabled to make informed choices – we should not be slavishly following for that may lead us in the wrong direction.

Our faith emerges as a response to something deep with us – the very beating heart of God which can only be discerned by looking and listening deep within us.

And yes, there will be many external signs and voices that seek to distract us or lead us in the wrong direction but when we are listening deep within us then there is no mistaking the whisper of God when we seek to follow the way God leads.

So “Ignore Sat. Nav.” and instead look deep within yourself and listen for that whisper of God it will keep you on the right track and as our passage says if we do that then ‘It will be a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body.’

Prayer

Loving Lord,

In the midst of the world’s chaos bring us to a place of peace. When our minds are overwhelmed by what we see and hear bring us to a place of hope. When our hearts are heavy with fear, with worry, with sorrow, bring us to a place of strength. When we feel adrift and that we are following the wrong path bring us to a place of calm where we can be still and listen for your whisper deep within us and there find your love for us, your healing for our souls and your refreshment for our bodies. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen