Which way?
So have you ever been on a trip and thought you knew better than Mapquest? Where you threw caution to the wind and actually looked at the road atlas? I remember such a trip a few years back. (I haven’t mentioned GPS because at the time they weren’t available to anyone but guys in missle silos) We were on a trip to visit my wife’s family in Ohio, approxametly 7 hours from were we lived in Indiana. I looked at the map and got this great idea, we could shave some time off of the trip if we gradually made our way north east on some lesser traveled state routes instead of going directly north to Indy and then turning east. I would like to report that I was totally right. My new route changed the time of the trip greatly! It added about 2 hours to our trip! We saw some great Indiana countryside, which irritated me because I was trying to shorten the trip not take pictures of corn and cows!
All this to say I would have never known if I hadn’t tried. In ministry it’s the same thing. We can play it safe and follow the path others have laid out, never take a chance, never break out of the box. Yet what if my way had taken 2 hours off of the trip? What if doing something against the norm pays big spiritual dividends in your ministry? I’m getting to the place where I don’t want to ask “What if?” anymore. I want to try and then say, “Oooops!” or “See I knew it would work!” (you sometimes have to fake confidence in the glow of victory) So if you’re at a crossroads don’t just automatically take the laid out path. Check the atlas, ask the guy at the gas station which way? Or to put it a better way check the Bible, ask the guy who knows where you’re going. (that means pray, in case I didn’t make that clear)
