Skip to main content

Knowing Someone Means Spending Time With Someone


There’s no getting around spending time with God in order to know about God. This is a gut check moment on how much we really want to know God. (As opposed to just wanting a get-out-of-hell-free card.)

It is by making and taking the time to be with God that we will begin to know Him. There is a voice in my life that I have learned to listen to with a bit of skepticism. It belongs to Greta, the name I gave my GPS. I named her so I would have someone’s name to yell when she gives me wrong directions. I’m sure you’ve had similar experiences.

On a youth trip several years back, I was attempting to lead our youth group to one of the leader's family in Kentucky. Either my GPS hates Kentucky and wanted out as quickly as possible. Or this family lived so far out of anything that satellites have not yet discovered this place. After several wrong directions, Greta’s screen finally just showed a question mark, giving up on ever finding our destination. But apparently we’re not the only ones to receive bad directions.

In January of this year, Sabine Moreau, a 67-year-old Belgian woman, was driving to pick up a friend in Brussels, about 90 miles from her home. But based on the faulty directions she got from her GPS, she drove all the way to Croatia—nearly 1,000 miles away. The journey took the woman across five international borders. She stopped several times to get gas and take naps, but she kept pressing onward until she hit Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.

After a few days her son was worried about her so called the police, who tracked her down by following her bank statements. She told a Belgian reporter, "I was distracted, so I kept going. I saw all kinds of signs, first in French, then in German, and finally in Croatian, but I continued driving because I was distracted. When I passed Zagreb, I told myself I should turn around."
Ryan Grenoble, "Sabine Moreau, Belgian Woman, Drives 900 Miles Off 90-Mile Route Because of GPS Error," The Huffington Post (1-15-13)

That’s when you thought you should turn around? For any of you not picturing this yet, that’s the equivalent of leaving from here to go to Ohio and finding yourself in North Dakota. That’s one long, wrong turn. But how often do we hear that in people’s lives. I took a few wrong turns until I finally found myself…and fill in the blanks.

Nope, there's no getting around spending time with God. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Studies on the Go...Genesis

To be honest, I had not heard of Studies On The Go before being offered a review copy by my god friends at Youth Worker. But since I’m always looking out for study ideas, I said yes to this opportunity. Studies On The Go by Laurie Polich-Short has 30 studies. This particular edition is on the book of Genesis. Any book of the Bible can be daunting when you’re trying to interest and impact teenagers. But Genesis increases that difficulty due to the many questions that arise on the topic of creation. On top of that, you have the many stories of questionable characters that we often call heroes of the faith. Each study comes with great questions, not mindless Sunday School questions where every answer is Jesus. They also come with an optional activity to take the lesson a step further and create true impact. Add to that a weekly plan for students to go deeper and you have a winner of a study in one little book. If all the book studies are as well done as this one, I’d ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Are You Capable Of?

I fancy myself to be just like Batman...without the money, the cave, the vendetta, the car and the cool belt. Other than that, we're pretty much the same guy. Does it help my case that I have a boy wonder? It's my son, but I'd take him over a dude in green tights any day. I've also imagined myself to be similar to Superman...you know, but without the super strength, speed, or that thing he can do with his eyes. Oh, and I'm also not from another planet. But he was a reporter and I like to write, though that hasn't been proven much by my blog. At least, not compared to what I used to write. The first time I write this post, it sounded like an apology. But that's not really the message I want to convey. Yes, I wish I were posting more. I also wish I had super strength or a cool utility belt, but those things aren't happening right now either. Maybe some day . The truth is I have been keeping busy. I'm not sitting back, sipping lemonade. I've never c...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Facebook Maybe

Granted, I'm a pastor. I have Type-A tendencies. Ok, my tendencies border on freakish OCD behavior patterns, but... Few things bother me more than the Facebook 'maybe'. I suppose I could go on and on about the grey areas of our society and the refusal of people to accept absolute standards. I could discuss the great need of people to accept that what is wrong for one person is likely wrong for everyone. I should certainly be concerned about mentioning that someone might have sin in their life. But I don't believe the Facebook 'maybe' is quite sin. Perhaps if I were coming up with new sins, I would add this to the list. But alas... Some might think the Facebook 'maybe' did not exist prior to the Internet, but they would be wrong. When I was in high school and asked a girl out on a date, I would normally be told that if they had no other plans, if nobody else called them, if there was nothing good on television and their hair did not need washing, then per...
5 comments
Read more