TomTom

Last week I went to a part of New Zealand I had never been before with my job. I flew into Nelson and  hired a car and because I did not know my way around I had bought a TomTom GPS system from home. When I was going anywhere I fed in the address and it would tell me how to get there . It is a wonderful piece of equipment and allowed me operate well  beyond what I could  do with my own knowledge. I was so attentive to that machine following its instructions exactly, but if I made a mistake the machine would recalibrate and show me how to fix it and still get where I want to go.....................amazing!

Interestingly I went to the Far North this week around Kerikeri and Kaitaia. This is an area I know and I am quite familiar with. I did take the TomTom with me to help me along, but I didn't use it in the same way. I was not as intense or attentive as I used it. It was just to give me a back up system to my own knowledge little more. If I thought I knew better I would ignore it and go my own way.

I started to think how my relationship with God can be like that. In the beginning when I first became Christian everything was so intense I looked to hear from God to make sure I was going the right way everything seemed unfamiliar, a bit like the Nelson trip. After twenty something years everything seems much more familiar in my Christian walk, I feel more comfortable. Unfortunately  there are times when I just use God as a back up system, to what I know, to what I think and just like in the Far North I will override him if I think I know best.

Experience has shown me I don't know best, God does, but that does not stop me thinking I do. It is in fact my sinful nature. So it is time for me and probably you, if you have been a Christian for a while to "return to our first love" as the Bible says. Know that every day no matter how familiar it seems is in fact a new thing you have never quite been there before. We need to be as attentive and intense with God as I was in Nelson with the TomTom when I wasn't sure about where I was and what to do next. Because in the end our destiny and our future depends on it!

I will be away for ten days so I will write when I get back!!