TRUE NORTH
When you are lost or trying to find your way, one of the first rules of navigation is to find true north and start over from there. True north is the direction of the North Pole. It’s exact and constant and never changes, unlike magnetic north. Magnetic north is the direction the needle points on a compass because of the earth’s magnetic field, and it changes about 25 miles a year due to variations in the earth’s core. That might not sound like much, but it’s enough to get you very lost if you don’t make adjustments. Pilots who navigate using magnetic north still have to find true north and recalibrate from there in order to find their way…or they could end up landing their plane in the middle of the ocean!
The same is true when you are lost in your brokenness. It’s hard to know where to start when you are overwhelmed with shattered pieces. A lot of well-meaning people will probably try to give you advice on what to do. It’s nice that they care, but they are your magnetic north. They might be close to the truth, but when you are wandering, you can’t afford to be a few degrees off. You must start with your true north, that One that never changes, and that means starting with the absolute, obvious commands and promises in God’s Word.
I’ll never forget the first Thanksgiving after our car wreck. Jen was still in a coma at the University of Virginia hospital, 90 minutes from our home town. Linda and I had just been released from different hospitals, but we couldn’t go home because our house was not wheelchair accessible. We would both be recovering in wheelchairs for months, so we were staying with my parents in their one-story house. Someone was kind enough to deliver turkey dinner, and we were attempting to go through the motions of Thanksgiving traditions without Jen. We were drowning in sorrow and uncertainty. Our hearts were heavy with grief, and we felt guilty for trying to do anything”normal.” I remember thinking that “normally” I would be leading our family in sharing what we were thankful for, but at this moment, I didn’t feel very thankful. I was angry and confused. Then suddenly and supernaturally,
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 came to my mind:
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
My sister-in-law says that she remembers me standing up and making a bold announcement. I don’t think I really stood on the outside because my pelvis was broken in two places, but I do remember taking a stand on behalf of my family, or what was left of it. I said “We are all sad. We don’t know what the future holds. None of us knows exactly what we should be doing or feeling right now. So we are going to do the one thing we know for sure God would want us to do—rejoice, pray, and give thanks—because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
I Thessalonians 5:16-18 became our true north. Whether we felt like it or not, we circled back to these three things. When we were lost in our brokenness, we came back and started here.
*Rejoice ALWAYS
*Pray CONTINUALLY
*Give thanks in ALL circumstances
God graciously showed me that I don’t have to be thankful “for” my circumstances, but I could choose to thank and praise God “in” them. At the very least, I could thank Him for forgiving my sins and praise Him for the free gift of salvation and the promise of living with Him in heaven one day. Often, we didn’t want to pray or be joyful, but we knew it was our only absolute set of directions in the midst of our wandering. As we began to do the things we were certain God wanted us to do, He began to take care of our uncertainties and put our broken pieces back together.
You can’t fix your brokenness. Only God can. While you are waiting on Him, you can do the things you know He has told you to do: rejoice, pray, give thanks.
There are only two things that last forever: the Word of God and the souls of man. That’s why you’ve got to choose to navigate your soul (and the souls of those you love) on nothing else but God’s Word, whether you feel like it or not. Stick with true north—the things you know for sure God has told you to do—and let Him do the rest of the navigating for you. He will get your where He wants you to go when you start with Him!
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