Map App

One night I was travelling alone with my three children on unknown roads.  I was headed to a hotel which I had called and made reservations earlier.  Maps on cell phones were fairly new but someone which will rename nameless assured me that I could trust my cell phone map. Therefore, my map app was leading me to our hotel.  It was getting close to dark and storm clouds were brewing.  My map app had me exit off interstate earlier than I expected.  However, because the hotel sat at an interstate exchange, I reasoned that my map app was going to take me the back roads so I avoided the interstate exchange.  I followed my map app.  After about 5 to 7 minutes of back roads, my map app told me I had arrived at my destination.   Unfortunately, I sat in the middle of nowhere at almost dark, with lightening and thunder all around me.  This wasn’t a little storm, this was a big storm brewing.  My anxiety grew.  I hoped I could turn around and retrace my steps back to interstate.  I wanted to be in the hotel before it started raining.  I wanted to be at my destination before dark and here I sit at my final destination in the middle of nowhere.  

Why did I follow my map app when my gut seemed to tell me all along this wasn’t correct?  

1. It could see a bigger picture.  It had an overhead view of everything around me.  Or so I thought.
2. Others assured me that even though map apps were fairly new they were reliable.

I did retrace my steps.  I called the hotel and told them I was lost and asked for assistance.  The hotel told me I was not the first person to have that same problem.  Evidently, someone who wrote the map app had not been on these roads before.  The kind lady talked me through getting to hotel.  I arrived in a much frazzled state,  in the dark, right as the storm hit full force!  

Why do I tell you this story?  

1. It was a life defining moment.  One of those moments when I was overwhelemed, scared and wanted to cry but had to be brave and strong.  I had three kids in tow!  One of which was already struggling emotionally with being lost!  I had to have complete reliance on God to provide for my emotional needs as well as my physical needs of getting to an unfamiliar hotel.
2. It was a moment when I realized the map app writer needed to come drive on this road and experience for himself the idea of “you have arrived” in the middle of no where!
3. It is very likely that we will be someone’s “spiritual map app”.  And the truth of that hit home!  I can never take someone spiritually to places I have never been.  Just like the map app writer needed to experience the “you have arrived” in the middle of no where, I need to experience Christ and grow so that I can effectively be someone’s spiritual map app.

In 1 Peter 2 we see where God describes us a royal priesthood.  In Exodus 19, God says if you love me and obey me you are my treasure.  You reside in the kingdom of priests.  If we know Christ on a personal basis, we serve in the house of the one who is King and Lord!  Sit and think on that for awhile.  I serve in the house of the one who is King!  I serve with my worship and intercession.  I must worship God with my whole heart!  Worship, trust and obedience are all essential for me experience, if I want to be an effective spiritual map app.

As a priest, I am called to make disciples and a large part of making disciples is to lead others to learn to fear God and to worship Him. But I will never take them any farther than I’ve been myself. If I try to direct them to a place I’ve never been myself, I’m probably going to lead them right into danger. So that means if I want to be the kind of priest God wants me to be I must first journey there myself so that I’m capable of leading the way.

What are you doing so that you can learn to fear God and to worship God so that you can be an effective spiritual map app?

Who in your life is your spiritual map app?

Who are you being a spiritual map app for?

--Karen Smith