Musings from the Manse

Last week I had to attend a meeting in London. When I arrived at Paddington Station the sun was shining. It was a beautiful day and so I decided to walk to my meeting rather than take the Underground. Google Maps on my phone got me straight to the door. It was still a lovely day when the meeting finished, so I decided to walk back to Paddington the way I had come. I didn’t need Google Maps because I had already walked the route earlier that day.

But suddenly I realised that I didn’t recognise the street I was in. I couldn’t think where I had gone wrong, but clearly I had, somewhere along the route. Out came my phone, and Google Maps confirmed I was not where I thought I should be. I had three options. Continue where I was heading and it would eventually get me back to the station, but a much longer walk; cut through some smaller, local streets; go back where I had come from and pick up at the point I had gone wrong. Local streets it was, and I arrived back at my intended destination, despite taking a different route than I had planned.

And so is our life of faith.

We travel with God showing us the way, and all is well. We think we know where we are heading. But forsaking the advice which is readily to hand, being over confident in our own abilities, can mean we end up getting lost. We may not be quite sure where we went wrong until we find ourselves somewhere other than we had intended. There may be many different routes to get us back on the straight-and-narrow, but only with guidance can we be confident we will arrive at the station before the train departs.

As we start our journey through Lent this year, we turn to God for direction, confident that we will eventually hear “you have reached your destination!”.

Psalm 121

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come?

2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and for evermore.

Happy travels!!

Revd Martin