Lost in the Wilderness
If you become disoriented in the wilderness it’s critical to regain your orientation. The map and compass in your hand is of no benefit if you can’t figure out where you are. I know for I’ve been in this unhappy circumstance.
It was in the middle of winter in the Adirondacks and proved to be one of the more frightening experiences of my life. I had both a compass and topographical map but, seeing my destination in the distance, I’d gotten lazy and stuffed map and compass back in my pack foolishly thinking they were no longer needed.
I was wrong.
After slugging through thick fir woods heavy with snow I’d become disoriented and, when I emerged, I couldn’t figure out where I was or in which direction our camp lie. It wasn’t until I was finally able to reorient myself according to my surroundings and locate my position on the topo map that I could safely progress towards my destination.
Recovering orientation
The same principle holds true in life; you find yourself in a rut, wandering about absent of a clear destination. If you are to find your way out of the aimless morass you need to recover your orientation. As I discovered when I was wandering about in the snowy Adirondacks, you need dependable reference points to accurately find your place in the world. According to Gary Barkalow, author of the excellent book, It’s Your Call, in the broad panorama of life there are three such reference points that can be used to help you triangulate your position: Story, Desire, and Journey.
I’ll speak to Story here and pick up in later posts with Desire and Journey.
Story: a key to orientation
It’s vitally important that each of us understands that we have been given a specific role in God’s unfolding story. A role only we can fulfill. And there are no trivial roles! As Gary Barkalow reminds us in his book, this truth is delightfully conveyed in a classic Mother Goose rhyme:
For want of a nail
The shoe was lost,
For want of a shoe
The horse was lost,
For want of a horse
The rider was lost,
For want of a rider
The battle was lost,
For want of a battle
The kingdom was lost,
And all for the want
Of a horse shoe nail.
As this simple rhyme illustrates, nothing in life is without purpose in God’s story. Nothing is truly ordinary or mundane—although it may seem that way to us at times. From a personal perspective this means that you have been given a specific role in God’s great plan. Your heavenly Father has no intention of having his precious sons and daughters sit on the sidelines wondering if they have a part to play to the glory of God and the good of others—including themselves!
Your life has a storyline to it. One that, despite wounds inflicted on you by others (and by you upon them), is being transformed and redeemed by God and is part of his larger story for all humanity.
The theme of God’s great story is one of overcoming and becoming: becoming who you were created to be and overcoming the forces arrayed against you, the enemies you must conquer on your journey of becoming. As Gary puts it, “We must live as if we are in a battle with very high stakes; this is our story.” Or as related by Nikolai Berdyaev, “Living the good life is frequently dull, flat and commonplace. Our greatest need is to make life fiery, creative and capable of spiritual struggle.”
Michael
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