2016-06-30
"I need a compass to keep me on course," he said.

"You've been off-course all of your life," she replied, laughing.

I overheard a couple in Wal-Mart yesterday. They were going camping, hiking and such, and he decided they better take a compass with them.

"You know I'll get lost," he said.

"Do you mean geese are smarter than you?" she replied.

"Geese?"

"Yes, every year like clock work, millions of geese fly north or south and know exactly where they are going. They don't stop at Wal-Mart to get a compass, do they?"

"They do. They just don't take their wives with them to give them grief about it!" he said.

Maybe it's the boy in every man that makes us need such gadgets.

Actually I have a compass too. My wife bought it for me as a joke to put on my rider mower. Now that's sad. How lost could I get in my back yard?

This one is one of those floating ball compasses. It always knows where north is even if you spin it around a hundred times.

It's a guy thing.

But I did an experiment the other day. I took a magnet and held it close to the compass to see if I could affect it.

It did. I took control of the compass. North no longer mattered because the magnet was closer and had more influence over it.

I thought about it for a moment. My life has been like that. So many times I was headed in the right direction and suddenly found myself lost, off course or stuck in the rut on the side of the road.

Now that I think about it, it was all because there was something closer, more immediate than the long-term goal I had in my plans. That moment had more direct influence over me than the seemingly unreachable goal of the future.

Suddenly it all made sense.

I took the magnet away from the compass and it spun back toward north.

God, like magnetic north, is constant. As soon as we remove the thing that has distracted us, taken us off the right path in life, we can easily find our way again if we look to God.

Still, a compass will keep me happy along the way.

It's a guy thing.

more from beliefnet and our partners
Close Ad