I am notoriously terrible with directions. Once I was an hour late to pick up my kids from school because I thought I put “home” into Google maps, but accidentally entered “Homs” and didn't realize until I was well on my way to Syria that I was going the wrong direction.

Thankfully I live in a small country right on the sea. So the sea quickly became my North Star. When I'm lost or not sure which road to take, I just keep driving until I hit the sea and then I can always get home from there. 

I think often we wish for God to be our Google map. We hope He will lay out our steps one by one: turn here, go over that bridge, turn there. We've all heard a story, I'm sure, about someone opening the Bible and a verse catching their eye that seemed to direct their exact next steps. We want to hear from God who we should marry, what country we should serve in, which team we should join. We want to know in 300 meters it will be time to exit the highway. To be honest, this can make decision making extremely stressful – what if I don't hear from God where exactly I should take the next turn? If I miss a turn, am I completely out of step with where God wants me to go? 

But maybe God's direction is less like Google maps and more like using the North Star. Just as I turn my car towards the sea when I'm lost and need to find my way, we should “fix our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2) and follow the voice of our Shepherd (John 10:3-4) on our path to being conformed into the image of the Son (Romans 8:29), living a life worthy of the calling we have received (Ephesians 4:1).  

If we keep our focus on Jesus, on becoming more and more like Him each day, our paths will be made straight (Proverbs 3:6; Isaiah 26:7), and we won't need to worry about missing a turn.