Recently I was thinking about how every job has its own set of frustrations. Take for example a teacher, just when it seem like a student has mastered a new skill he forgets how to do it (or maybe that was just a frustration for my teachers). Or a custodian, who cleans a building from top to bottom, making the place shine, only to have it get dirty the next day. But as I thought about it, I decided that one of the most frustrating jobs in the world would have to be being my GPS.

Quite often I use my GPS as a general guideline rather than the only way to get to my set destination. For example, recently I programmed a destination in Seattle, knowing full well that I wanted to avoid the freeway, which was the way I knew the GPS would take me. I just wanted the directions for the end of the drive, from the place where I would have gotten off the freeway.

So mile after mile I ignored every direction the GPS was giving me until the last mile or so of the trip. If my GPS was a real person she would have been very frustrated by my actions and I suspect that every future time that I programmed a new destination she would ask me if that was really where I wanted to go or was I just going to ignore all of her hard work like I so often do?

That got me to thinking about how we seek, listen to and follow the directions that God wants to give us. Proverbs 3:5 and 6 say, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.”

When we seek and receive God’s direction we can’t treat His leading as I do my GPS, basically saying, “Thanks for the direction but I’ll decide for myself where and when to go.” No, if we want to live in God’s will and experience the life that He has for us we must follow as He leads, without trying to figure out how we can improve on His plan.

To seek and follow God’s will puts us in a place where He can work in and through our lives in some incredible ways. So take time each day to seek His will, invite God to direct you through your day and then follow as He leads. And as you seek and God leads, be looking for all that God is doing in your life and in the lives of the people you touch as you follow His plan for you.

Seeking and Following,

Mark