The overwhelming blessing of G.P.S.

Look admit it… you would be hopelessly lost without GPS. You might be of a certain generation and think “How dare this youngin’ write ‘I’m hopelessly lost without GPS’?” You might have warm and nostalgic memories of being completely lost and opening that trusted and stained 8-year-out-of-date atlas, only to discover you still don’t have the faintest idea where you are. Maybe you fondly remember driving to the nearest sketchy gas station and just praying some seasoned, and road-hardened truck driver will guide your poor soul back to the exit towards the goldfish convention you were looking for. You may think those were great times, but I can assure you, nostalgia will make even root canals seem like good memories.
 

GPS, even with all its faults, has improved our lives greatly. Before GPS you actually had to leave your house in the RAIN to get that taco bell your sleep-deprived brain desired! Now it’s only three clicks and one grub-hubber away!

But GPS has its share of issues. For example, it has made us all lazy in planning before trips. When was the last time you planned in advance where you were going to stop for gas on a road trip? When was the last time you owned or opened what historians call a “map”. Pilots especially have welcomed with open arms the bliss that is GPS. Before, when the Wrights were still flying, pilots had to plan with winds and checkpoints, and recorded times. Now a fancy box paints a magenta line and tells me how long the trip will take, and all I have to do is not fall aslee… oops, what I meant to say is, “fly the line like a professional”.

  But even though the government bequeathed us, mere peasants, the wonders of their fancy flying clocks, GPS is not what this post is about. God’s People Serving or G.P.S is what this post is about. I have been absurdly blessed to be surrounded by Godly men and women that have guided me to where I am today. I wish everyone would have the experience I have had with people mentoring them on this journey of life. As I write this, faces and names come to the very forefront of my gray matter, and I almost tear up in gratitude.

I think of a man that is the closest I have ever met to the apostle Paul. He has taught with his very example what it means to love, and I mean truly LOVE people. He has told people to their faces they are sinning, but not in an outwardly pious way, that I find myself wanting to do it in. Do these people run after his stern and firm rebukes? No! In fact, it seems to make them only love him more. He daily spends his life looking to improve the community in which he is planted.

Then there is a man I know that wakes up in the hours reserved for God’s nocturnal creatures, to tearfully and passionately pray for his family, his church, his ministry, our ministry, his employer, and anyone else that God lays on his heart. This man not only does this but has also opened his household’s door to a plethora of children left in the cold of society.

Then there is a man that I know that I currently am using as my G.P.S. He has had a busy life, and it has not always been the cushiest, but he has shown me what it means to be a faithful servant, serving our King with a passion and fire that is more infectious than chickenpox or poison ivy.

The list here could go on for a long while, but I wanted to highlight the people God has laid directly in my path as I have walked this road of life. My prayer for y’all is that you too can have a full pound of gray matter worth of names and faces that will point you to the King, and what it looks like to serve Him.

Oh, and hang on to that nasty stained atlas, you never know when you will need it to start a fire.