Articles
Course Corrections
Road trip. I-81 is a beautiful drive in the shadows of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Cruising at 70 mph, a driver is constantly making small steering adjustments to keep his vehicle properly oriented in the lane. On a trip to Nashville, for instance, thousands of such minor corrections must be made.
But sometimes more drastic maneuvers are required: a retread lying in the road; a semi forcing you into the emergency lane; avoiding a wreck that just occurred; a deer leaping in front of your car (all those have happened to us on 81). And then there are major reroutes that occasionally force you off the interstate onto back roads: roadwork, major accidents, etc.
Just as Jesus found many spiritual analogies in agriculture, so many are embedded in the driving experience. But the application of this article is the need for ongoing course corrections on our journey to heaven.
No one is morally or spiritually perfect; no one has perfect insight into their own behavior and motivations; no one has everything figured out and needs no instruction or admonition. We are, as we say, “works in progress,” and essential to that progress is continual realignment of our words, actions, intentions and will to the revelation of God.
Scripture provides several examples of those who underwent radical reorientation of life. Exhibit A:
Manasseh. 2 Chr 33:10-17 tells the story of Manasseh’s repentance: “Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him, and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God” (33:12-13). This is said of a man who had sacrificed his children to Molech; built idolatrous altars in the temple; practiced occult arts; murdered countless innocent people: “So Manasseh seduced Judah … to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel” (33:9).
Per our driving analogy, Manasseh had run off the road, careened through a ditch, plowed up bushes, crashed through a fence and was heading toward the cliff. But in the nick of time God got the king’s attention through capture, torture, deprivation and exile – only because Manasseh had not completely seared his conscience.
Others who had to make some drastic course corrections include Apollos (obsolete GPS data), Paul (confidently heading in the wrong direction), Job (travel weary, frustrated and parked in the rest area) and the “sons of thunder” (reckless drivers who needed to curb aggression). Fortunately, these saw the warning signs and got back on the correct route.
But others did not: the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah; Pharaoh of the exodus; Korah/ Dathan/Abiram; Achan; the tribe of Benjamin in the time of the judges; King Saul; King Zedekiah; the rich young ruler; Judas; Ananias and Sapphira; the Jewish Sanhedrin, etc. These did not become spiritual fatalities because they lacked information, were wrecked by others or blew a tire. No, they crashed and burned because they violated the rules of the road, were oblivious to the danger, heedless of the warning signs and totally lacking in situational awareness.
So, thinking spiritually, how do we make corrections along life’s pathway so that we continue heading toward the right destination (heaven)?
Self-analysis. At its most basic level, correction begins with self. Our own faith must be discriminating, diligent and discerning. It is the individual Christian who, when looking into God’s word, “observ(es) his natural face in a mirror.” But woe to the one who sees the truth about himself and “immediately forgets what kind of man he was” (Jas 1:23-24). It is the individual Christian whose “thoughts and intents of the heart” are laid bare by the sharp, powerful blade of Scripture (Heb 4:12). As the driver is the one most sensitive to the micro-movements of his vehicle, most aware of the traffic around him, most responsible for the safe operation of the car, so it is with the Christian and his spiritual life.
Are you attuned to yourself enough to see that you are drifting? When you are getting sleepy? When you are daydreaming? When you are in danger? When you are driving, do you need someone to tell you every moment to steer right, steer left, speed up, slow down, etc.? Ultimately, you are responsible for your own soul, and you will give an answer in the end for where your life ended up (2 Cor 5:10; Rom 2:5-10; 1 Pet 1:17).
A good navigator. Sometimes, however, we need help getting back on track. Through most of my years of driving I have been blessed by a consummate map reader and alternate route finder. Melanie has navigated us from the tangled streets of London through the wide open spaces of the Rockies to the precarious cliffs of the Pacific Coastal Highway. I have learned to trust her directions to get us out of trouble and back on course.
And sometimes we need a spiritual navigator. Moses needed Jethro; David needed Nathan; Naaman needed his servants; Hezekiah needed Isaiah; Peter needed Paul; and Paul needed the Lord. We all need those who care about us enough to advise, warn, correct and bring us back to the right road. And we need to listen to them:
“Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a just man, and he will increase in learning” – Pr 9:8-9.
“Let the righteous strike me; it shall be a kindness. And let him reprove me; it shall be as excellent oil; let my head not refuse it” – Ps 141:5.
“The ear that hears the reproof of life will abide among the wise. He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds reproof gets understanding” – Pr 15:31-32.
God does not expect anyone, married or single, to make the journey to heaven alone. Yes, we are ultimately responsible for our own soul, but we are also instructed to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). So whether it is the elders, or a concerned brother or sister, or a parent or a sibling who expresses concern or offers you a word of sound advice, are you willing to circumspectly consider and act on it?
