Navi had a pleasant American
accent, easy to understand and somewhat soothing. She proved helpful at first, guiding us
efficiently around Highlands Ranch, Colorado, a community with many curvy
streets that defy the usual grid system most American cities have adopted
since the days of Benjamin Franklin. She
was inferior to Garmi (our sweet, British accent Garmin GPS voice) in some
ways, though. She never named the street
onto which we were supposed to turn, and never gave us much warning about an
upcoming turn, often making it difficult to cross over three lanes of traffic
in time to enter the left turn lane.
But, she was free, so we put up with it.
It was out on the open highway
that we began to experience some difficulties.
As I drove along Highway 287/26 somewhere between Dubois and Moran in
Wyoming, I heard Navi tell me to make a left turn in 500 yards. I was sure I needed to stay on the highway
until we reached Moran, so I was a little skeptical. I had also learned that Navi had a difficult
time telling a turn in the road from an actual left or right turn, especially
if there was a driveway or dirt road in the area, so I wasn’t too
concerned. Sure enough, 500 yards down
the highway I passed a National Forest dirt road on the left. She didn’t scold me or inform me she was
recalculating (a favorite activity of Garmi's), so I simply continued along a
very lonely and windy stretch of Wyoming highway. About ten minutes later, Navi warned of a
right turn that was coming up. There had
been no highway signs indicating an upcoming deviation, and I knew the highway
went all the way to Moran. The spot
designated by Navi as the turning point came and went, this time without even a
driveway anywhere to be seen. This
happened three more times before we pulled into the campground in Moran.
I read a while ago about people
who have died in Death Valley because they trusted their GPS, following
instructions to drive down unmaintained dirt roads in one of the driest and
hottest places on earth. The park rangers
began calling this practice “death by GPS.”
People would get stuck, without enough water, unable to go forward or
backward, and too far from civilization to be able to walk for help. Sadly, many didn’t realize that GPS programs
can work long after they are out of cell phone service range.
We are constantly bombarded with
voices giving us various types of advice, some solicited, some not. The advertising world uses incomplete truths
and faulty reasoning in their attempts to get us to buy things we neither
wanted nor needed before we saw, heard or read their commercial messages. Yet, we listen and find ourselves drawn
toward their products. Peers who are not
tied to the same moral or ethical anchors as we are often attempt to lure us
away from our moorings to pursue pleasures we know we ought to shun. Shallow religious self-serving demagogues set
traps to capture our minds, proclaiming half-truths as God’s will. So many of these voices are subtle,
persuasive calls that sound so reasonable.
Indeed, they often sound righteous, beneficial to humanity, good for us.
Jesus proclaimed, “…the man who
does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a
thief and a robber. The man who enters
by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.
The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his
voice…his sheep follow him because they know his voice…” (NIV). He also said, “I am the way, the truth, and
the life. Nobody finds their way to the
Father except by way of me” (Reed paraphrase).
“The way” means “the path or road.”
If we want to navigate safely through the confusing maze of rough roads
and dead ends we know as the world, we need to listen to the only voice that
really cares about us getting from point A to point B. It is a daily, even hourly, effort to filter
out all the voices of the false shepherds, the self-serving “friends,” and the
commercial enterprises, all of whom wish to lead us down their own paths to
destruction. We must make the effort,
being ever vigilant to remain on the narrow path that leads to life, listening
only to the voice of our God. And just
to make sure we hear him correctly, he has graciously provided a transcript for
us to read carefully, over and over, learning and preparing ourselves for every
moment of life. The Voice will not lead
us down the wrong road. He will lead us
into life.
