GPS
Finding Our Way: From Desert Tracks to Divine Guidance
REFLECTLATEST
Vivek
6/12/20262 min read
I have a habit of losing my way—far more often than I would like to admit. One could understand it if I were wandering in the middle of a desert, where there is nothing but endless barren land and no landmark in sight. But that is not the case. I miss highway exits, take the wrong turn at roundabouts, and forget the correct direction at traffic lights. It happens not in the desert, but right in the middle of the city, despite all the bright signboards around me.
Bro. Varghese and Bro. Biju, members of our congregation, would gladly confirm this, because I often call them when I need help finding my way out. I can almost hear you whispering, “But what about smartphones?” And you are right. Today, our phones come equipped with built-in GPS that can guide us to our destination, even speaking directions in the voice we prefer. But there was a time when such helpful devices had not yet been invented.
In the late 1990s, I worked as a route surveyor for a contracting company in Oman’s oil and gas industry. My responsibility was to identify the shortest and most practical routes for new oil pipelines and overhead electrical lines. Looking back, I can see how even those years were quietly teaching me the value of guidance.
Many times, I was the first person to travel across the terrain, and finding my way back was often difficult. Our work took us deep into the interior oil fields of South Oman, where losing your way in the desert could be frightening. In that vast landscape, every direction seemed as if it could be either right or wrong. I faced this situation many times, and each experience was deeply unsettling.
Years later, I moved from Oman to the UAE and took up a position as a Quality Manager with a consulting firm. The company was executing a large-diameter water pipeline project stretching nearly 200 kilometers across mountains and desert. Once again, the Lord allowed me to see, through the ordinary experiences of work, a deeper picture of how necessary guidance is for every journey.
Because our work took us through vast, empty terrain, the company provided each of us with a device called GPS (Global Positioning System). It guided me along the correct route to my destination. At every signal and junction, it showed me which direction to take and where to turn. What a wonderful device it was!
Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, after that the Israelites journeyed; and in the place where the cloud rested, there the Israelites encamped. (Num 9:17, AMP)
In the wilderness, God guided the children of Israel like a perfect and loving shepherd. By day, He led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night, with a pillar of fire. He showed them when to move, where to go, and where to stop and rest. Not for a moment did He leave them without His presence or direction. For forty years—from the day they left Egypt until the day they entered the Promised Land—God faithfully directed their journey. They were traveling toward a land they had never seen, along paths they had never walked before, yet His guidance never failed them.
Dear brothers and sisters, this same unchanging God—who is the same yesterday, today, and forever—still guides His people today. He shows us the way to go, the decisions to make, the words to speak, and the things to avoid.
Let us follow Him with willing hearts and listen carefully to His voice. As we walk in humble obedience, He will lead us safely and faithfully to the destination He has prepared for us.