The Compass

A very interesting thing happen to me this past Sunday. As my family and I (well, actually two of my four children are still in pre-school class during the worship service...but that is not really important to this story) enjoyed the preaching at the worship service of our church, my oldest (she turned eight in April) began to draw on a piece of paper with the crayons that we put in her "Worship Bag" (this is a canvas bag that every child receives from the church once they are old enough to attend "big church"...the kids really love it). As the different shapes and colors began to take their appropriate place on the page, I began to see the picture for what is was...a compass. It was a very good compass. It had its North, South, East and West. My daughter even went so far as to put the "little lines" between the larger ones that represent NW and so on. Not bad for a second grader. :)

As I sat there listening to the sermon so eloquently delivered by our pastor (He really is good...Side note...Go to "My Church" link here and you can listen to audio or even watch video of the messages...Sorry, another shameless plug), I began to think about that compass. I began to think how interesting that she would choose "that" picture at "that" time. Later I asked my artistic little angel, "What made you draw a compass in church?" (I truly thought that maybe they had talked about a compass in Sunday School or maybe a friend at church had brought one to show to his/her friends) She looked at me with her big beautiful brown eyes and said, "I don't know, that is just what I had in my head." At that moment I had an "Out of the Mouth of Babes" moment.

The picture of the compass began to fill my head. I remembered when I was a kid at camp one summer. We were taught how to use a compass. We went through the basic training that morning and then put our new found talent to the test that afternoon. We were all taken to different "stations" in the forest. Then, we were given a list of directions to follow. If all worked the way it should, we were suppose to find our way back to camp. I remember being a little nervous. Looking back, I'm sure we were no more than a couple of hundred yards deep, but to me it felt like miles. I thoroughly read my directions, I set my compass, and off I went. There were times that I felt that my compass had to have been broken. "This is taking to long" and "Did I make a wrong turn", were just a couple of the thoughts that went through my head. My compass had led me into a very thick patch of trees and brush. I came very close to tossing the compass away and running in the other direction screaming as loud as I could in hopes that help would come, but I didn't. I remembered what my camp counselor told us during the training, "Trust the compass and it will get you back. If you trust your eyes, they can deceive you. If you trust your ears, they may lead you in the wrong direction. Trust the compass and it will get you back." So I did. I trusted the compass. I went in directions that I would have never chosen myself. I made turns that I knew had to be wrong. In the end, I made it back to camp. I was the last one back...I had a few scrapes from some of the falls I had taken while being so nervous... I even had some mist in the eyes from being scared...but I made it. I even remember the look of excitement in the eyes of my counselor when I appeared, I was really touched he cared so much (looking back I think he was excited to not have to send out a search party or having to explain to my mother that they lost her child) :)

How appropriate is it to think of a compass at church? You see, Christ is our Compass. We go through our training, whether that be church services or Bible study of our own, and learn to build a trust with our Compass. Then, there comes a time (or many as it always seems to be in my case) when we have to take this new found trust out for the test. Is all that we have learned just book knowledge, or do we know enough about our Compass to really go exploring? So we do it, we take the plunge into that deep dark forest we call life. We try to remember the words of our Counselor, "I will never leave you or forsake you." So with truth ringing in our ear, we depart on the journey. Oh man, how many times do we look around us and think, "This is not where I am suppose to be. Something is wrong. My Compass must be broken. I'm going the wrong way." The stronger those feelings become the more we want to toss the Compass and run in the other direction screaming as loud as we can, just hoping that help will come. It is at those moments that we must remember our training. It is at those moments that we have to remember that if we toss the Compass, then we will really be alone. No, this is the moments that we must hold tight to our Compass and understand that if we trust our eyes...they can deceive us, and if we trust our ears...those sounds we hear may be leading us in the wrong direction. It is our Compass that will get us back to camp. It is our Compass that will get us safely home. And when we get there, we may not be the first to emerge from the forest and therefore unable to brag about how well we listen to the Counselor during training. We may not be entirely clean, because of some of the falls we had taken along the way. We may even come humbly from the tree line with tears in our eyes, because deep down inside we really didn't think we were going to make it. But when that moment comes, and we are able to see the Son Shine once again. Oh, what a beautiful day it will be. What joy will be in our hearts. And how great it will be to hear the voice of the Counselor say, "You made it."