Turn around ...

Have you ever been on a trip and suddenly you (or someone else traveling with you) begin to question whether you are actually going in the right direction or not? Of course, it is one of those roads that has no indication of where you are, where you are going or where you have been (no sign posts). At this point you have a choice to make and there seems to be only one of two of these available to you, either to persist in the direction you are going, or to turn around and go back.

Let me ask you, how are you at taking directions? Or here is a bigger question, how are you at being told you are going in the wrong direction? Think about this a moment. Does it sit easy with you then someone suggests you are wrong? Your choices are out of whack, out of alignment with what God might want for you. How do you take such conversation?

Have a look at this passage from the Bible with me:

Isaiah 55:6-7 (New Living Translation)

6 Seek the Lord while you can find him.

Call on him now while he is near.

7 Let the wicked change their ways

and banish the very thought of doing wrong.

Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them.

Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.

To repent is merely to turn around, to go in the opposite direction than the one you have been going (take a u turn). It is to respond to the fact that our lives are heading the wrong way, most times a destructive and harmful direction of wasted opportunity. It is then we need to understand that God has something better and different for us, a plan that is fulfilling, worthwhile, healthy and beneficial. But it does mean discarding the way we were going. The way we were living. To turn our back on this and go in a different direction.

This passage reminds me that there is a time for this. In fact, more urgently, that we need to respond while the opportunity is there for us, for it may get too late and not be an option available to us anymore. And I love the response of God when we do this: Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously. Don't you love that?

Lord, I desire to be found on the right track, following Your way, going the direction You have mapped out for my life. Help me to listen to the prompting of Your Spirit who at times needs to correct me in this, who attempts to guide me back onto the right path. Help me in listening to obey and to follow You more closely.