Today is Marooned Without a Compass Day.
With all the technology at our fingertips and in our pockets, we can know where we are at any given time. It’s practically impossible to get lost anymore!
Or so I thought.
For the most part, I work remotely. But once a month, I drive from Appleton to Waukesha to work in the office with the rest of the lovely crew at Northwestern Publishing House. I can make the drive there and back without needing to use Google Maps because I know where I’m going.
But several months ago, on the day I went in, we also had our company picnic. It was at a different location, and I planned on heading home from there. I’d never gone that way, but I had my phone. The problem was, when I left the picnic, I didn’t have a single bar of cell reception.
I was in a dead zone.
No matter—I knew I needed to head north, so I started driving in that direction (or so I hoped), thinking I’d get cell service back before I went too far out of the way. Mercifully, I only added an extra half hour to my commute home.
What does that personal (slightly embarrassing) anecdote have to do with today’s post?
That experience is the daily spiritual reality for so many people in our world. They live in a perpetual spiritual dead zone with no way of knowing where they are—or how to get home.
Dear Christian, we were there too until God spoke to us through his Word, and the Holy Spirit created faith in our hearts. Never forget that.
Now we know. We know where we are, and we know how to get home. In his Word, Jesus tells us, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Follow me!”
By God’s grace, we do. We’re following him through life here on earth until we get home. Sometimes our experiences in this sinful world make us feel like we’re going in circles—lost. Marooned without a compass. But we aren’t lost. We know the way. God gives us his Word so we know beyond a shadow of a doubt where we are and where we’re going.
We’re going home. So what if we’ve never been there before? We know the one who has, is, and will ever be there—the one who says, “Follow me!”
We know Jesus. We know the way home. Because of that, when we see others looking lost, we can reach out, put a hand on their shoulder, and tell them how they can get home too.
Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.