Please proceed to the route . . . 
Please proceed! To the route!
Please! Proceed! To! The route!
Rerouting . . .

And then, radio silence.

This was what I heard several times during my family vacation this past summer. My husband, two daughters, and I drove from Missouri to the Grand Canyon. And much to the chagrin of the robot inside my phone (as we referred to the navigation app), we did not always stay on the prescribed course during our travels.

Between pulling out of our driveway and finally returning home several days later, we drove about 3,000 miles through seven states. For the most part, it was smooth sailing. My husband is a truck driver who had studied the map before we left, so he knew which highways we needed to take and all the exits we couldn’t miss. The trouble came when we arrived at our destination and wanted to explore. More than once, we missed a turn or decided we knew better or didn’t hear the instructions being read from the phone — and that’s when we heard it.

Please proceed to the route . . . 
Please proceed! To the route!
Please! Proceed! To! The route!
Rerouting . . .

Sometimes I would have sworn the app was angry with us. Though I’m well aware “her” voice is simply the product of a computer program and not actually a sentient robot talking to us, the pleas to proceed to the route seemed, at times, exasperated. It was as if our robotic navigator was really saying, “Get back on track, please. I said to get back on course! Hello! PEOPLE. Are you listening? Turn that minivan around before you get lost!”

If we veered too far off course, we eventually got the silent treatment from the phone. We’d hear a click (a robot’s version of a sigh, surely) and then . . . nothing. We’d finally done it. We’d gone too far down our own path and even the maps app was giving up on us.

My family was so tickled by this and laughed a lot as we figured out how to get where we wanted to go. But it’s not so amusing when the destination and the journey are less tangible and more personal.

Sometimes the road to reaching our goals, to staying within God’s guidelines for what’s best, for “smooth sailing” seems obvious. It’s right in front of us, paved and pointed to by Scripture or a still, small voice, by mentors or past experience or even common sense. The best course is simple, straightforward, and if we squint our eyes just right, we can see the finish line from here.

But most of the time it’s not that easy. More often than not, we’re just as likely to get off course as my family on a cross-country vacation. Perhaps we miss a turn and don’t realize we needed to make a change until it seems too late. Maybe we hear the directions but decide another way seems more interesting or more efficient or more fun. Or maybe we don’t hear the directions at all and no matter how hard we strain our senses in an effort to find answers, we come up empty and unsure.

Sometimes it would be awfully nice if we could open an app on our phones to tell us which job to apply for, how to handle our child’s diagnosis, what to say to our spouse in the middle of the same argument we keep having. Who hasn’t wished for a robotic voice (or any voice!) to give exact instructions when facing a health crisis or budget problems or a complicated friendship?

We don’t have to pick up our phones (or Google or poll our friends or wish on a star) to navigate through our lives. We simply have to ask God for help.

James 1:5 says, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you” (NLT). And Jesus tells us in the book of Matthew to continue asking for what we need until we receive it.

Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
Matthew 7:7-8 (NLT)

Keep on asking. Even when you take a wrong turn or misunderstand His guidance or can’t figure out which way is up (or north). Even when you intentionally take a left when He’s told you to go right. Even when you feel like you should know the answer or when it seems as if everyone else knows exactly what to do and how to do it. Keep on asking.

And our loving Heavenly Father will not only give us the wisdom and guidance we need when we need it, but He also will do it with patience. He’ll never get exasperated with us for needing help, for messing up, for feeling confused. When He tells us to proceed to the route He’s designed, He won’t grow increasingly frustrated like I imagined my phone did. And He certainly won’t go silent when it takes us a while to respond or learn or make that U-turn.

Are you lost? Confused or unsure? Driving in circles, passing the same landmark over and over again, unable to get back to the main highway (metaphorically speaking, of course)? God will help you. He will guide you and show you the way. All you have to do is ask.

Cry out for insight,
and ask for understanding.
Search for them as you would for silver;
seek them like hidden treasures.
Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord,
and you will gain knowledge of God.
For the Lord grants wisdom!
From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Proverbs 2:3-6 (NLT)

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