Too irreverent a comparison? Consider this.
Waze Helps Save Time in Every Day Traffic
If you haven’t used Waze, it’s a community navigation tool. Nearby drivers add traffic data, and Waze uses the input to guide you on the fastest route. It may direct you on questionable routes. The neighborhoods are unfamiliar, or the path is indirect. The automated voice funnels you through so many turns, you wonder if its creators are laughing at you. But, no matter how odd the route, for me, Waze’s ETA is pretty accurate.
When I don’t follow the route (because my way is better, of course), most of the time, I discover unwanted consequences: a hazard — or worse, a crash. I lose precious time. Trusting in something with data from the bigger picture saves me time and frustration, even in familiar territory.
Waze saves time in traffic, but time is a precious, no matter the location. Time is arguably the most valuable asset. Once time is lost, it’s lost. Each person’s time is unknown and ultimately uncontrollable – a scarce and unpredictable resource. If Waze can save me time, frustration, and avoid hazards in traffic, I’d like to have something to guide me with data from the bigger picture for my general life, too.
A Lifetime Guide Saves Time with Every Day Decisions
I want to save time in my car and with life’s metaphysical aims – love, value, and freedom, for instance. Life’s intangible destinations aren’t as defined as the physical ones. It can be hard to decipher where you’re really headed or why you chose a destination in the first place. Or, maybe your life’s ambition was always defined and vivid. Whether disillusionment, disappointment, or certainty describes your purpose, your life deserves a good guide.
But, a good guide is useless without a thoughtful follower. To work, the follower trusts the guide has that bigger database and better information. The follower isn’t compelled to follow and doesn’t follow half-heartedly. He knows with the good guide’s help, he’ll be taken care of; so, he follows freely.
No one uses a guide unless he knows he needs help. For me, if I need help saving time on a monotonous commute, I probably need help with abstract life goals. The decisions I make every day sync with my desired destination or cause a detour. Whatever you believe about the gravity of your choices, with age, decisions without good reason become noisier. Consequences to good intentions are aggravatingly persistent.
If you want your life to be good, if you acknowledge a reliable guide with better information can help, and if you are willing to trust that good guide, why not follow the giver of the Good in your every day decisions? For those who question the existence of a good God, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel are worth a judicious analysis and a good starting point.
If a good God seems like a reach, morality alone is admirable. But, you’d be missing a relationship with the Guide that loves you, died for you, and made you. You could follow principles or the Originator of principles. And, His destination for you could be better than yours.
For those who desire a life of peace and freedom, Jesus helps navigate your current road (or for me, current maze). No matter how you got there, you can immediately choose to start following different directions. Jesus invites us to receive the best of life in the middle of its brokenness – peace during unavoidable hazards, clarity from an all-knowing Guide in chaos, rest for the weary, grace and forgiveness to fuel fulfilling relationships, and love that redeems, restores, and hopes, even in the darkness. An event proved this love. Witnesses shared that event and gave up everything to tell about it.
But, be careful! Before you follow this Guide, you should know: an omniscient, perfectly loving God may invite you to follow Him on questionable, unfamiliar routes that seem indirect and laughable. It’s easy to conflate an undesirable route with the undesirable character of your Guide, especially when His answer to your prayer for a reasonable detour is “no”.
But, if you believe He’s a good guide who loves you and died for you, with data points from the beginning of time, maybe his “no” is sparing you a hazard He sees, but you don’t. Even though His route may be puzzling, He could be saving you time and frustration you don’t realize. Or, maybe, in the past, He’s provided objective examples of His faithfulness for you to remember when you’re perplexed by His route.
When I’ve followed my own directions, it’s led to an unexpected, nerve-racking crash. Crashes (and consequences) do not discriminate. I’ve lost precious time and am tired of cleaning up the debris.
Reasons to Trust the Better, Lifetime Guide
History shows God’s promises are true. A weak claim? I’d argue for millennia, God has consistently given His followers tangible reasons to trust Him. For example, thousands of years ago, God offered a follower clear (but risky) directions with the promise of a future destination. In Genesis 12, God tells Abraham to leave his country, his people, and his father’s household — an entirely unfamiliar route. The immediate destination is even a little vague: the land He will show Abraham.
God offers to lead Abraham to a place he’s never been by trusting God to show him the way. God does not ask Abraham to follow Him without good reason. God gives Abraham a promise (the history of Israel shows this promise was fulfilled): God will make a great nation of him, bless him, and make his name great, so he will be a blessing. The nation of Israel, starting with Abraham, blessed the world by preparing it for the entrance of our Savior, Jesus.
God may not be calling you to leave life as you know it (or maybe He is!) and travel to a foreign land with an exceptional promise. Regardless of the road He’s asking you to travel, following God today draws on the same tenet of trust. This is not a blind trust to careen down a shadowy alley that seems like a trap. Jesus does not ask you to trust without good reason. He loves us so much He left paradise to die an agonizing death in a fallen world. He writes history, and He knows the enigmatic routes of time. He wants you to play your unique part in His unparalleled story.
He does not want you to experience the pain of an avoidable, life changing crash. He has limited our time on this earth, and He doesn’t want you to waste it. He sees all the available routes, even when we are confused and in unfamiliar territory. He already knows the messy hazards along the way.
Trusting a Good Guide at a Dead End
There is no doubt: life is full of crashes and pain you did everything to avoid. God never promised a life without suffering. Even when you’re honoring God with your life, there is still fog, powerful storms, and other thoughtless, annoying drivers. You have no idea why God has allowed a passage with soul-deep pain.
There will still be unavoidable crashes, injuries, and emergency calls for help, but He will be the One to show up at the scene. The One who easily could have avoided unjust suffering so we could experience full life will be the first to arrive. The One who chose unfathomable pain on our behalf will understand ours. The One who conquered death when the world went dark promises to be with us in our dark places.
Trusting something with more data (or the knowledge of the universe) seems logical enough, but when life is painful, or when there is an easier choice, it’s a challenge. If you give up something you deeply desire to follow Christ and trust Him with those desires, it can be excruciatingly painful and costly. But, unless you give up whatever is keeping you from being closer to God, God’s will cannot completely unfold in your life. If you don’t trust Waze, and don’t make the turn, even though the route you want to take seems best, you will never know the superiority of Waze’s route – until you realize there really is a crash ahead. Now, you’re stuck on a road you don’t want be on. The same goes with following God. Until you fully trust God with the decisions of your life, even when your way seems better, you will never experience the plan He has for His glory. That plan includes you. You may be stuck, waiting for the crash to clear, wondering what you missed.
A Better Guide for a Better Destination
Following God isn’t like following Waze. It’s much better. You can trust God with your hurt, disappointments, failures, dreams, and entire self. He is the good Guide for every situation. Every one. I use Waze to save 10 minutes on a relatively quick trip in the city. I hope I (and you) carefully choose the less discernible routes in life, so we can arrive at the best destination – perfect peace, love, fulfillment, acceptance, and joy.