Charting a Course

My fishing buddies and I have been blessed the last five years with the opportunity to take adventures to the Bahamas and the Dry  Tortugas fishing.  It has been awesome.  Going out of Key Largo we set a course N NE to Bimini.  I use a GPS and plotter to chart our course or the path.  And, it makes a nice, neat blue line to follow.  All I ask is that whoever is piloting the boat to follow the line.  It's a lot more difficult than it sounds.  Waves act against you, the wind pushes you, and there are currents.  So, we are constantly looking that the GPS.  You could simply just point the boat in the direction that you want to go, but the problem with that is that a few degrees off when traveling 75 miles could make you miss the target.  The direction and, consequently, the path given are of upmost importance.  We all choose paths and they determine our destination. Emotions don't.  Intentions don't.  Trying harder doesn't.  You can't reap what you don't sow and you can't arrive at the destination if the direction is wrong.  

God gives us principles that direct our lives to the destination that we desire when aligned with him.  Sometimes, we don't see how we can get to the destination on the path he calls us to.  That's where faith comes in.  Sometimes we can get frustrated that those not of faith are on a "better" path.  Psalm 73 says "their present life is only a dream" and that they are on a "slippery path" that will send them "sliding over the cliff to destruction."  

There will be course corrections in our lives.  I believe that we have some choices in how severe some of them are.  For examples, we can choose to ignore an issue in our marriage or personal lives and let it grow larger.  Or, we can address it and make a minor course correction.  But, the further we go down the wrong path, the greater and more severe the course correction.  

My desire is that I make daily and weekly minor course corrections and to stay as close as possible to that blue line....