Where Is Your Compass Pointing?

Have you ever really looked at a compass? I’ve never had a need for a compass before but I have one on my cell phone and thought it would be fun to play with it once. I opened the app, turned around until the compass pointed north and then watched as the dial slowly creeped from side to side. I was trying to sit very still, but just my shallow breathing was enough to move me and the compass needle a few degrees off north. So I thought if I put it down on a solid surface, I could move it around until it was at 0º and it would stay there, but I was wrong! Perhaps, no matter how still I try to be, my position in relation to north is always changing slightly as the earth orbits.

This week was challenging for me. A dear friend had to once again point me toward Jesus as I dealt with some uncomfortable memories. I don’t know why, when I’m struggling, I find it so hard to remember to seek Jesus’ face. If I’m not looking for him in the hard-to-deal-with moments, I’m not looking in the right direction. When I’m not looking to Jesus, the enemy’s lies that I am worthless, unlovable, and invisible begin to seem like the truth. You know what I mean. Those lies that say "you did a terrible thing and God could never love you because of it" feel so real when you’re not looking into Jesus’ eyes, when you’re not seeing the scars that prove his undying love for you on his hands and feet. Sometimes we hide our faces, afraid that if we look for Jesus, what we will see is him walking away, abandoning us, while a small devious voice whispers, “Do you blame him?” See what being just a few degrees off in our faith journey can lead to.

As humans, we just don’t have an acute enough sense of spiritual direction to keep us on the right path. Even if we could stumble into Jesus’ light on our own somehow, life continues and that would be enough, even if we tried our very best to be still, to move us a few degrees off our path. We do have a spiritual compass, if you will, in the Holy Spirit. He dwells within each of us and, like the compass needle, will consistently navigate us in the right direction. He will always point us to Jesus. We need to open our hearts and our minds to the Spirit and he will faithfully guide us back into the full and glorious view of our loving Savior. He will direct us through the forests, deserts, and grasslands of our faith journey in the dark of night and the light of day, through the storm and the calm, until we reach the destination God has set for us. Where is your compass pointing today?