Navigation 101—Know Where You Are

Navigation 102—Know Where You Are Going

A long, long time ago in a far away galaxy there was a Navy flight crew that was heading home after a long deployment to Naval Air Station Home Port from a certain island on the Pacific rim. They used the very in-vogue computer generated flight plan that was the state of the art for the day, to determine their route of flight and fuel requirements. The weather along their route was notorious for the ability to change without warning. I guess the forces of nature have never been really big on following what the forecaster predicts. Instead we usually find that the weather does pretty much what it pleases. In this case nature delivered a very healthy thunderstorm about the size of Australia. Consequently the flight crew, suffering from an extreme case of get-home-itis, attempted to climb the aircraft to the maximum attainable altitude in an effort to get over the weather rather than make a pit stop. To accomplish this amazing feat of aviation they turned off the engine and propeller anti-ice systems to squeeze out the last available Bernoulli (pound of thrust). About twenty minutes later the grand silence befell them as three of the four engines flamed out (quit running). After losing twenty thousand feet of altitude they were able to stir the languishing horses back to life and finished their journey to Home Port after making an unplanned fuel stop at the island home of the famous Albatross (Gooney Bird).

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6 NIV).

It is quite easy for me to look at the aforementioned horror story and equate it to my spiritual life. When I first met Jesus Christ as my Savior I was filled with the same kind of exuberance to be on the journey. I wanted to get on down the road at the best possible speed. Yes, I to ran into unexpected heavy weather and nearly crashed and burned. Why? Because I was ignorant of the precepts of spiritual travel and navigation. I had the brazen audacity to think that I could plan my spiritual life as if it were just another mission.

As you can see in Isaiah 35, the flight plan has already been filed and the right amount of fuel is onboard. We are destined to travel on the “Way of Holiness.”

“And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there…” (Isaiah 35:8-9 NIV).

But where can I find this Way? You already have! Perhaps it would be better said if the question were phrased: Who is this Way? We see by reading the Key Verse from John that Jesus is the Way. Jesus is the Highway of Holiness. He is also the on-ramp (gate). We enter the Way at the Gate which is Calvary—the Gate where the vilest of sinner may enter into Him who is the Way.

There are many other paths in this world available for us to trod. However, we are not to stray down these by-paths but are to stay on the “ancient paths.”

“Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to worthless idols, which made them stumble in their ways and in the ancient paths. They made them walk in bypaths and on roads not built up” (Jeremiah 18:15 NIV).
So What!

As we continue on our journey we will find that we already know the Way because He is our blessed Savior, Jesus Christ. We are not lost because the Way of Holiness is always before us and He is Truth. We need not hurry because the Way is already with us and He is life.