Just Following Directions

Numbers 9:15-23, 10:29-36

Maybe it is because of my experiences as an ordained minister having served eight congregations in various capacities, but I am struck by the manner in which the people of Israel made their way across the wilderness, or at least how they knew when it was time to take another step in the journey. “Whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, then the Israelites would set out; and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the Israelites would camp” (Numbers 9:17).

If only God's directions were so clear in my life, if only I could watch to see when the cloud moved and follow it, then many of my concerns would be answered. That’s how I have felt from time to time, and yet in a number of ways God has offered just the sort of guidance I needed. There may not have been traveling clouds, but in other ways I have sensed what God was calling on me to do. Sometimes it was more a matter of affirmation, the awareness that I had gotten where I needed to be by God's will. Other times it has occurred to me that no matter where I was God had a use for me. Besides, God could offer direction all day long but I have to be willing to follow it, to pack up my tent and head out after the cloud if I wish to be where God wants me to be.

Ministers are not the only ones who seek God’s guidance in life. All of us have faced turning points, moments like the one Robert Frost describes in his poem “The Road Less Traveled.” The truth is that God offers guidance in a number of ways to all of us, sometimes at the moment and sometimes later on as we consider things in hindsight, sometimes as a definitive direction and sometimes as the awareness that no matter where we end up there is a role of us to play. God does not always offer the clarity we want, does not always give detailed instructions like a divine version of Mapquest. But God does remain engaged with us and does continue to guide us. More importantly God continues to travel with us so that wherever we go, God’s grace is there as well.

Prayer: Lord, guide and direct your people as they seek to serve you. Give us each the assurance of your presence. For it is in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.