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<\/a><\/p>\nLast Saturday I was invited to be the retreat leader for a\u00a0Sunday School class from a large church in Dallas. One of the members has a\u00a0lovely vacation home in the wilds of east Texas near Chandler. I was to arrive\u00a0by 9 am, have breakfast with the group, and lead a daylong session on the\u00a0parables of Jesus. The class leader offered the opportunity to ride with one of\u00a0the class members since it was a little tricky to find, but I like to drive\u00a0myself places. So she sent me the directions for the 2 hour trip which\u00a0involved, in the last few miles, finding an asphalt road on the right, a caretaker\u2019s\u00a0house immediately on my left, a shed on the right and then a 2 mile dirt road\u00a0to the house.\u00a0 Just to be safe, I also plugged\u00a0the address into both Map quest and Google, printed out directions and then\u00a0programmed my navigation system in my car with the address. Surely three\u00a0sources of directions would get me through the 110 mile trip. Still I left 20\u00a0minutes earlier than needed, just in case.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a particularly pretty day. In fact, it was rather\u00a0overcast. Being a Bible nerd, I was passed the time listening to the Modern\u00a0Scholar \u201cHistory of Ancient Israel\u201d CD series a friend who is also a Bible nerd\u00a0had lent me. I learned about how the Assyrians enjoyed deporting people and\u00a0settling them in a strange land so they were disoriented and didn\u2019t have the\u00a0energy to rebel. I lost all respect for Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar for killing\u00a0poor King Zedekiah\u2019s sons in front of him, then putting out his eyes, putting\u00a0him in chains and making him march to Babylon. By comparison I should have had\u00a0no complaints about my little trip. Except that as I got to the end of the 110\u00a0miles, there were an awful lot of farm roads with very similar numbers. The\u00a0scenery was pretty, but after a while, I didn\u2019t care about that. All I cared\u00a0about was that a houseful of people was waiting for me. The worst moment came\u00a0when, as I was driving down farm road 4109, my navigation lady in my car said\u00a0\u201cYou have arrived at your destination. Your route guidance is finished.\u201d The\u00a0only problem is, I wasn\u2019t anywhere. I was just driving down a country road with\u00a0nothing on either side.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, there have been times in life when I have\u00a0felt that way.\u00a0 I know God has a purpose\u00a0for me, but I\u2019m not quite sure how to get there. I think a lot of people have\u00a0those times. You don\u2019t particularly feel God present and guiding you. You feel\u00a0left on your own and not quite sure how to get where you\u2019re supposed to be\u00a0getting.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, hearing \u201cYour route guidance is finished,\u201d had\u00a0a motivating effect on me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need you!\u201d I told her. \u201cI can find this #$*% house\u00a0on my own.\u201d Feeling a surge of irritation and determination, I put the car in\u00a0reverse, drove back down Farm road 4109 to the main road (I use the word \u201cmain\u201d\u00a0loosely) and, peering at the written directions the class leader had given me,\u00a0turned right, then left, then right and, praise God, there was the asphalt road\u00a0on the right, the caretaker\u2019s house on the left, the shed on the right, and the\u00a0dirt road leading into the trees. After bumping along it for 2 miles, there was\u00a0a lovely house on a small lake. \u00a0I was not\u00a0even late.<\/p>\n
I dragged my rolling briefcase up the steps and rang the bell to be\u00a0greeted by a jovial group of people waiting to hear me talk about the parables\u00a0of Jesus.<\/p>\n
Maybe I could invent a modern\u00a0parable. But what would I call it? \u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0parable of the lost leader?\u201d And what would the lesson be? That, when it comes\u00a0to God, our route guidance is never finished? That God sometimes directs us through\u00a0our own ingenuity? That you should leave early if you expect to get lost? That\u00a0next time, I should put aside my pride, and accept a ride?<\/p>\n
Parables are so effective and so annoying because they offer us the challenge we most need to hear.<\/p>\n
Then they leave it up to us to accept and act on it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last Saturday I was invited to be the retreat leader for a\u00a0Sunday School class from a large church in Dallas. One of the members has a\u00a0lovely vacation home in the wilds of east Texas near Chandler. I was to arrive\u00a0by 9 am, have breakfast with the group, and lead a daylong session on the\u00a0parables of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,58,59],"tags":[63,61,62,60],"class_list":["post-571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biblical-references","category-daily-experiences","category-humor","tag-getting-lost","tag-gods-guidance","tag-gps","tag-parables"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n