Devotions
from The Woods @Wanamaker
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I am completely directionally challenged. Most of the time I know left from right, and then there’s up and down and back and forth, I’m really good at those, but I’m even better at getting lost!
I was in college and in my early years of ministry back in the good ol’ days, before we had GPS on our phones. It was this separate expensive thing that existed but not everyone had. My family would joke that they were going to buy me a GPS (eventually they did ). I remember I would print out a Google map when I needed to go somewhere (I’m not THAT old, there was at least internet and Google Maps.) I had to have it to drive from Olathe to my small town home of Ulysses. I had to have it to get around in Kansas City. I did have a cell phone back then, when minutes counted and you paid for every letter in a text. If I got lost, which was often, I called my mom on my “emergencies only” phone, or I stopped for directions (but only if I was on a timeline). I actually liked the adventure in getting lost and it didn’t bother me much unless someone was counting on me or I had to be somewhere at a certain time. I remember one night shortly after I graduated Mid America, when I was working in Kansas City, Missouri. I got on the road home and they were doing road work and had the only way that I knew home completely blocked off, I was SO lost, it was dark and I had no idea where to go! My sense of adventure kicked in and I found a thrift shop and decided I’d seize the moment and explore a little. I was walking the aisles when I got a feeling I was being followed. Someone was nearly breathing down my neck as I was looking through some artwork. I decided I’d nonchalantly move on to a different section that I figured the guy wasn’t interested in, women’s shoes. He followed. I moved through a few different sections and he lingered. I chose something tiny to purchase in order to get out of there but have someone see my face (do I watch too many crime shows or what?) He followed me to the register. He was two people behind me and had nothing in his hand. I was convinced I was about to become an episode of Criminal Minds. After I checked out, I ran out of the store and to my car, I fumbled with the keys. I just knew he was coming out of the store headed my way. I finally got the right key in the door jumped in and locked the doors. I was never so glad to see something in my rearview mirror. As I drove away, I called my mom frantic, and couldn’t get a hold of her. I called a couple friends, no one answered the phone! I was driving around aimlessly and all I wanted was to get home. Adventure over, I was lost. We can follow directions and get to our desired destination. We can ignore them and get lost. We can let our sense of adventure take over and take advantage of getting lost. But all that is needed is to to find a good road map or directions from someone who knows the way. The Bible has provided a road map, a way to get on the good road, a way to get away from the evil lurking behind you, following you around looking to derail you. Billy Graham says “Jesus did not say, ‘I am one of the ways, or one of the roads you can take to get to the Father.’ What He said was, ‘I am THE way.’” As I look in the rearview mirror and see 2021 getting further away and 2022 is in my windshield I am banking on God’s directions to keep me on the good road and planning to spend more time with Him and in the “good Map” with the only one I can truly count on and truly understand. What about you, how are you committed in the coming year to staying on the right road? Reading your Bible more, getting involved in a Bible study or Small Group? Leading one? I pray this year leads you down the road to furthering your growing relationship with Jesus Christ! “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14 May God bless you and your family in this coming year! Pastor Delinda
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AuthorNotes from the Staff @The Woods Archives
March 2023
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