{"id":180,"date":"2012-09-11T10:23:51","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T14:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godscomic\/?p=180"},"modified":"2012-09-11T10:23:51","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T14:23:51","slug":"traveling-by-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2012\/09\/traveling-by-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"Traveling by faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have a GPS system in my car that not only knows exactly how to get anywhere I need to go, it also knows where I am at any given time even when I don\u2019t have the slightest idea. Her soothing British voice is always there to guide me when I\u2019m lost and it gives me comfort. She never gets rattled and she never loses patience with me. With GPS where I once was lost, now I\u2019m found.<br \/>\nWhen I pray to find the correct address I\u2019m looking for, she always guides me to it though sometimes it\u2019s not by the shortest route. Sometimes in life you just have to travel by most use of freeways. I have never met my muse face to face but I always know she\u2019s with me. I often travel into unfamiliar territory and even when I begin to question her wisdom and understanding of the situation I have learned that if I just trust her and follow her lead no matter how unfamiliar and frightening the area may seem to me, in the end I always end up where I needed to go no worse for the wear.<br \/>\nThe more adventures we have taken the more I have come to rely on her guidance. It is becoming a normal way for me to live and it\u2019s becoming second nature to simply trust her without asking her why she is taking me this direction. It is comforting to learn to lean not on my own understanding but in all my ways acknowledge her and she will direct my path. Sometimes when I\u2019m driving long distances I\u2019ll gaze into the heavens and wonder where she is.<br \/>\nI also look around at all the other travelers going in many different directions than mine and yet she is able to assist all of us simultaneously. No amount of people asking her assistance is ever overwhelming or refused. There have been times when I have gone to areas I have been many times before but I have her guidance system engaged anyway. Once in a while she will direct me a different path than I am familiar with and used too even though I know the way!<br \/>\n I\u2019ll even ignore her guidance in these areas and choose my own route. She isn\u2019t offended but simply waits for me to make my move and then patiently readjusts her directions to try and compensate for the path I have chosen. She never gives up trying to lead me in the way I should go but because I am driving she doesn\u2019t stop me from my choices, she only makes do with what options I have left her with and carefully negotiates an altered plan based on where I have put myself.<br \/>\nOf course my way gets me where I wanted to go and her way would have done the same. Whose way was best, who knows? I do wonder though why I take her advice unheeded when I\u2019m venturing into uncharted waters but always take the reigns back when I feel confident I know better this time. Of course my friends I realize I\u2019m talking about a computer program and some satellite configurations. But why do I have this gnawing suspicion that there is a metaphor in here somewhere?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a GPS system in my car that not only knows exactly how to get anywhere I need to go, it also knows where I am at any given time even when I don\u2019t have the slightest idea. Her soothing British voice is always there to guide me when I\u2019m lost and it gives&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[53],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","tag-gps-god-driving-getting-lost"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Traveling by faith - God&#039;s Comic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2012\/09\/traveling-by-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Traveling by faith - God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have a GPS system in my car that not only knows exactly how to get anywhere I need to go, it also knows where I am at any given time even when I don\u2019t have the slightest idea. Her soothing British voice is always there to guide me when I\u2019m lost and it gives&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2012\/09\/traveling-by-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-11T14:23:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brad Stine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Traveling by faith - God&#039;s Comic","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2012\/09\/traveling-by-faith.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Traveling by faith - God&#039;s Comic","og_description":"I have a GPS system in my car that not only knows exactly how to get anywhere I need to go, it also knows where I am at any given time even when I don\u2019t have the slightest idea. 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From his Nashville stronghold, Stine is mounting his crusade against these hypocrisies, all of which are explored in his highly anticipated 4th album\/DVD, aptly titled \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWUSSIFICATION!' \"You know what offends me?... Offended people,\" says Stine. A staunch supporter of first amendment rights and foe of political correctness, Stine asserts that rights should be universally applied. \"In a country with guaranteed rights to freedom of religion, its citizens are constantly trying to make faith in public spheres illegal, I am offended by that contradiction and want to talk about it as a comic.\" The strength of his conviction about our freedoms can be found in many places on WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from \"Merry Christmas Too!\" (the right to celebrate religion) to \"At Least We're Not France!\" (the responsibility to take action as a country) to \"Spank\" (the ability to discipline our children the way we see fit). What would cause the wussification of Brad Stine? \"I hope that nothing ever wussifies me to deny my own personal beliefs,\" he says. \"Brainwashed wussies have been taught that standing up for yourself and defending your personal point of view makes you a close-minded hate monger.\" Stine stops short of defending his point of view as the ONLY one, adding \"...one must also be respectful of dissenting belief while supporting their own.\" He is, after all, an inclusive figure who trains his comedy to attack ideas, not the people who embrace them. Stine's faith forces him to acknowledge the respect and dignity of all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 even the wussies with whom he disagrees! Stine models his approach to comedy after legendary practitioners that he has known and loved over the years. Despite George Carlin's disdain for theistic beliefs, he has been a big influence on Stine. \"I always enjoyed Carlin for turning the tables on culture. He is an excellent writer that has endured for decades.\" More current comedic touchstones are Brian Reagan, Paula Poundstone, Jim Gaffigan and Monty Python, among others. Fear not, true believers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with his brand new album, Brad Stine is here to save the world from WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one politically-correct, offended person at a time!\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/author\/bstine"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}