“We’re all pilgrims on the same journey–
But some pilgrims have better road maps.”
~Nelson Demille

These days with the internet use of Map Quest, Google Maps and GPS units, having to reach in the old glove car compartment and wrestle with the old paper road map is long gone. I guess you can say using a paper road map may become another ‘lost art’ to be written in historical, “Do-you-remember-when-lists.”

It is a good thing that the paper road map is fast becoming obsolete. Not only was it difficult to read and decipher but being somewhat dweebish, I had to have the map refolded back into its original fold lines. Depending on how large your paper map is, this task is almost, if not, impossible. (Please do not try it when you are driving and if you are in a hurry to get from point A to point B.)

I will not miss having the paper road map if it should happen to vanish off the face of the earth. One person, I think, may share my same feelings about the paper road map. Take for instance, one day, as I stood filling up my very thirsty automobile with fuel at the local gas station, I suddenly heard a stranger’s voice behind me and he spoke to me like this:

cAn*7se*&@Wal-Mart*&)_+.)ohlp

Well, you can imagine the only word I understood clearly was Wal-Mart and since I practically live there–just kidding– I think maybe I should ask for extra Wal-Mart customer benefits since I do spend an incredible amount of time shopping browsing at all the neat stuff they have in there.

Anyway, back to what I was telling you, here I have this stranger speaking to me in his native language, and it was ‘all-Greek-to-me,’ and I gathered he was trying to find his way to our local Wal-Mart since he kept repeating it over and over.

Therefore, I pointed him in the direction he should go, tried to guide him in my best broken whatever language he was speaking in and sent him on his merry way. He left looking like he understood me and I could only hope he got there without having to stop again for directions. He did not have to worry about getting there before closing time since, thank goodness, Wal-Mart is always opened to happily grab take your hard-earned money.

Maybe the lost  ‘pilgrim’ had a paper road map in his rental car glove compartment and was unable to open it up to read or understand it; maybe his GPS was malfunctioning, but either way, it was plain to see he was lost.

As I watched the lost ‘pilgrim’ drive off, it hit me that we are here on a journey; the destination being, for some who believe in the eternal after life, a perfect place called heaven.

I am like this lost pilgrim!!

Many times I find myself wandering around trying to understand how to follow God in the way I think he expects, occasionally finding my life goals, similar to a road map, getting unfolded in ways I did not expect, and it is in this moment I need to take a few minutes; tap on His divine shoulders and say,

“God, can you please, show me, again, how to get back home to you?”

Hopefully I can be like the lost pilgrim and have enough faith to know that the heavenly sent ‘road maps’ will always guide me in the right direction and for sure, it is way-out-of-this-world better than any paper or modern tech map.

***************************

So, my Pilgrims, what road map(s) do you prefer using when getting to your destination? 

*****************