My wife and I went to visit a friend last week who was having surgery at Sloan Kettering in NYC. After visiting with him it was time to head back to the train station. It was a beautiful day and I was excited about finally being outside after a long winter. Google Maps said it was only an hour walk from the hospital to the train station. No big deal. Right?!?
My wife was not so excited about an hour walk through the city. She kept saying this weird word…Uber…Uber… I’m thinking she must mean she is Uber-excited about walking. I tried to convince her it would be an adventure!
Google Maps lets you pick your own route. I liked one particular route because it took us right through Central Park. We could stop at the Balto the Dog statue, see the Hope sculpture on 7thAvenue and then make a stop at Chick-fil-a on 6thAve. before arriving at the train station. This was an adventure worth the pain of an hour walk! I picked the best spots along the way!
I think we want something like that for our life…we want a God’s Maps app. “God, show me the path you are suggesting and I’ll let you know if I’m okay with it.” “Give me a couple of different options and I’ll pick the one I like the best.” “I trust you know some good routes, but I’m the only one truly qualified to know what’s the best route for my life.”
If we don’t like the path God “suggests” we’ll pick a different one.
The truth is there can only be one God of your life. You have to pick. Will it be you or will it be the Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth?
Google gives us the overview of what the trip is going to look like before we even get started and then it gives us turn by turn directions.
God doesn’t give us the overview, He only gives us turn by turn directions. You only get the next direction after you obey the current one. You have to do what God is asking you to do right now before He tells you what comes next. You have to take this step before he gives you the next one. When you follow God’s turn by turn navigation guess what the Bible calls that? The Bible calls it…faith.
Your faith demonstrates who is in control of your life.
We all want the overview, but God just gives us turn by turn. Why just the turn by turn?
- He wants you to stay close to Him.
If you’ve ever walked through Central Park there are several paths that are close together and on the Maps app it isn’t always clear which one you’re supposed to be on. I missed the right path and added some more time to our trip. (My wife really started saying that word again.)
After that misstep I was zoomed in and glued to my phone.
- You would quit.
If some of us saw the length of the journey we had ahead of us we wouldn’t even start. We’d see some of the impossible and seemingly hopeless challenges in front of us and dread every step. We’d fear the future and our lack of capacity for climbing such a mountain. You don’t currently have the capacity to face those things, but with each step on the journey you get stronger. With each turn your capacity is growing. Your faith is growing. We would say you are maturing in Christ…turn by turn…day by day. I think it’s an act of God’s grace not to show you the overview.
It takes a lot of courage to get moving and take your next step when you don’t have all of the “what if’s” figured out.
ANALYSIS PARALYSIS
Sometimes we can’t take that next step because we have analysis paralysis.
We want 100% assurance of how things are going to turn out. You will never be 100% sure, but I don’t think you need it either. I think the best you’ll ever get is 80%, but if 80% of the evidence and information is pointing in a particular direction, which direction do you think you should go?
This weekend marked the second year our church had moved to a new location. I would love to tell you I knew it was a smart idea from the beginning. I thought it had potential and I thought it could work. But I was also plagued with doubt each step of the way. I was nervous…is this the right decision? What if we can’t make it work? What if it flops? Even though 80% of the information pointed that this was the right direction for this season in our church’s life, I was still hung up about what was unknown.
I confided my feelings to a friend and he told me, “Look, even if it flops and I don’t think it will or I wouldn’t let you make this decision, but I’m with you either way and we’ll regroup and try again if it doesn’t work.”
It was exactly what I needed to hear. We all need friends like that to keep us from being stuck in analysis paralysis because at some point you’ve got to stop talking it to death. You’ve got to stop analyzing and take your next step.
WHAT’S YOUR NEXT STEP?
Maybe you’ve been feeling for awhile now like you need to cut back at work because your family needs you but you’re paralyzed as you keep running the numbers.
Maybe yours is scheduling an appointment with a counselor. You’ve been talking about it forever, researching who is the best for your issue, but it’s time to just pick up the phone.
Maybe it’s filling out the application for college or grad school.
Whatever you are facing there is a step you can take. It won’t be your final step and I don’t know where it will lead but it leads somewhere. You just have to take the next step God lays out in front of you.
Everyone I’ve ever met has great ideas. Ideas that will make their family better. Ideas that will make their community better. Ideas that will help people and even change the world. But not everyone takes the next step. People will only get so far and then they get to a step and become paralyzed. It’s not that they don’t know what the step is…they just don’t have the faith to take it.
God speaks to every one of his children, but not every one of His children will take the next step.
Do you know what happens when you don’t take the next step?
Regret.
How do you avoid a lifetime of accumulated good ideas and regrets? Take your next step. You don’t need to know all the steps, besides, why would God give you any more steps if you won’t do this one?
How do I know what my next step is?
When I don’t know what to do…I pray and ask God for wisdom.
I pray and ask God:
Who do I know that can help me with this?
What have I read or can I read?
Where can I go to find the answer?
Almost always I have a next step I can take.
God has given you a healthy mind to gather & sort information. He has given you the Bible for direction. He has given us His Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. He has given us a church family who loves us and wants to see us succeed.
When you start tapping into all that God has provided…
It doesn’t take long for a step to be revealed.
Some of you may be thinking… “Okay I think I know what my next step is, but it just doesn’t make any sense. How will this step possibly make things better? How will this step fix this big problem?” I’m not saying one step will, but the direction that step takes you will lead to the answer.
Maybe you feel it’s unfair that you even have to take that step. “Why do I need to call a lawyer? I wasn’t the one who had the affair!” I hear you…I have felt the same way about several things in my life. Things that made me scratch my head and wonder why that happened or why someone would lie about me after all I’ve done to help them.
I think certain things in our life God just puts a stamp on that says, “will explain later.” But until that day, just keep trusting me, just keep walking…turn by turn.
One day all of our question marks will be straightened and turned into exclamation points. One day we will see the route as God does. One day we will know what God knows about our situation and then our question marks will be straightened into exclamation points. “Oh! Now I see!” “Oh! That’s what you were trying to do!” “Okay! Now that makes sense!” “Brilliant! Why didn’t I see that before!”
Peter didn’t understand why Jesus had to wash his feet…Jesus said…
Later on Peter understood what Jesus was doing… “Oh! You were teaching me about servant leadership!” “Oh! You were saying that your followers should be known as servants! I get it now!”
I think that’s what Jesus would say to some of you… “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”
You don’t see it all laid out clearly yet…you don’t see the whole route like He does. I know it’s confusing just following turn by turn, but keep taking that next step.
Imagine what could change if you just took your next step. What would be better by summer if you would just take that next step? What would be better next year because you took the next step and you got moving? All God is asking you to do is to get moving.
