Where are you?

Have you ever directed a friend to your house through the phone? Some conversations work out well, with the friend arriving with minimal amount of time and money wasted. Some conversation goes on and on for like half an hour, with the end result being we meeting them at the place where they are, and guiding them back to our house. Ever since my childhood days, I would follow my dad for visitations, and often times we are the ones asking for directions and troubling others to pick us up... It was only last night that I had the experience of directing someone to my house, and I have finally figured out the problem.

You see, the conversation through the phone last night didn't work out as well as I hoped for. As I was working towards where they were, I felt partly responsible. My best friend would testify that I give lousy directions. So along the way I kept thinking about what I could have done better to avoid leaving my food on the table and my soccer match on tv... I was basically kicking myself until I saw the car - I gave him correct directions, but he gave me a wrong indication of where he is. He said KFC was on his left hand side, but turns out that KFC was really behind him. He couldn't give me a clear indication of where he was, so even though I gave right directions, I couldn't guide him to his destination.

There are two sides to this. If you want to reach your destinastion, you first have to know where you are. If you don't know where you are, correct directions won't help you, simply because you are lost in the first place. In our walk towards Christ-likeness, we often go round and round in circles because we don't know where we are in our spiritual walk with God. Pride makes us think we are alright. Sometimes pretending is so easy that we fool ourselves. Our leaders and friends try to help us grow, but we mislead them and they in turn mislead us. We must be honest with ourselves. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and open our eyes. This has to be a crucial practice for all who earnestly desire to grow, be the person God has destined us to be, and live the life that Jesus promised to us.

Secondly, if you want to lead and guide someone, you'll have to know where they are exactly. Asking the correct questions would be helpful. But sometimes we just have to meet that person where they are in order to guide. It's hardwork and inconvenient, that's for sure. I suppose to do this, you have to either really like that person, or be compelled by the love of God. Patience really goes a long way.

Just sharing random thoughts. Hope I can find a better to present this... That's for another day.