“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.!” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB)
A scoutmaster told his four most senior scouts that he was going to take them on a night exercise in a deep wooded area. He gave each one of the young men a list of things they should be sure to bring, one of them being a compass, He clearly stated that they should not bring their cellphones. All they needed was a backpack, packed with a flashlight, a bottle of water, some insect spray, and a small snack. The exercise was not going to last more than an hour.
Preparing for the exercise, three of the boys secured a compass, either borrowing one from their dads, or purchasing one at a big box sporting goods store. The fourth boy did not see the necessity of using his precious time to find a compass. In his mind, he was thinking, “Why go to all that trouble. I can simply depend on the compass on my phone.”
The night of the exercise came. It was the time of the year when the moonlight’s illumination barely shined through the tall trees that were clothed in what seems like multiple layers of leaves, as if they forgot that winter had long passed and all those layers were not necessary. There was definitely enough coverage to block the light that came from the glowing moon. The scoutmaster led the boys around and around, to a deep spot in the forest. When they got to a certain spot where there were some fallen limbs, big enough to serve as resting chairs, the scoutmaster had them sit and rest as he explained the exercise. Their task was to find their way back to where they had entered the forest. To make it more challenging, he had them close their eyes and turn around and around and around, until he eventually said, “Stop!” While they were turning around, he quietly moved the limbs that they had been sitting on to make sure they did not have a clue as to which way to go. They were to keep their flashlights off until he instructed them that they could turn them on. Before letting them embark, one by one, striving to meet the challenge of getting back to where they should meet up, he instructed them that he would be waiting for them on the northwest side of the woods. They had no idea which direction they were facing. Remember, the moonlight was barely getting through, and it did not help that the cloud blocked the sight of the far away stars. He told them to use what they had in their backpacks, “especially your compass.” Discombobulated somewhat because all the turning around left then void of any hint at all in terms of which way to go. The three boys that had followed the scoutmaster’s instructions, easily were guided by their simple compasses. That was not the case for the boy who was going to depend on the GPS on his phone. His phone had to be fully charged, and it depended on triangulated signals coming from orbiting satellites located way above. Guess what? You got it! It was not fully charged and he lost power. He wandered. He stumbled. And you know that to some degree he was troubled.
The three boys that brought the compass as instructed by the scoutmaster had no trouble at all getting to the northwest side of the woods where they were supposed to meet up. They waited on the boy who did not follow instructions. They waited and waited and waited! At some point they decided to go and look for their fellow scout. They found him, lost in the woods, and going the wrong direction. With joy they called him and showed him the way. One of the three boys could not resist saying, “I guess you will follow the scoutmaster’s instructions next time.”
Now, let me ask you something. Are you going to listen to the Master’s instructions today or are you going to keep from wandering in the wrong direction as you go through the woods of life? I hope you said, “Yes!” Furthermore, I hope you are not hearers only, but rather doers when you hear the preached word today. Love you! Be blessed!
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:24-27 ESV)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King