We are staying in a hotel for a few days and eating out was causing my husbands stomach to painfully complain in distress.  Being the amazingly wonderful wife that I am I volunteered to make a trip to the nearest Whole Foods for some healthy food.  I climbed into the van, picked up the GPS and punched in ‘Whole Foods’.  Twenty six miles away.  A little bit of a trip, but since I am such an amazingly wonderful wife, and since I didn’t have anything else of importance to do, and since I absolutely love Whole Foods,  I hit go and headed down the freeway.

We arrived at Whole Foods and began the process of finding healthy, instant, non- perishable foods for a discriminating eater.   In our quest to find the bread we passed by the baked goods section and Aspen, my five year old, spied her favorite mini cupcakes.  We stopped in front of the glass case of frosted confections and Aspen pointed to her favorite one.  This was actually a far more complicated process than it should have been.   Finally the patient girl behind the counter put the desired pink and white frosted cupcake into  a little plastic container with a lid that snapped closed.  Aspen  also received a lollipop as she exited the store after we checked out.  I’m sure her thoughts were full of sugary delights as we climbed back into the 15 passenger van.  Aspen took her lollipop and mini cup cake to the back of the van, buckled up and proceeded to enjoy her lollipop as we headed back to the hotel.  Just a few miles down the road she finished the lollipop and wanted her cupcake, but she was unable to open the snap on lid.  I couldn’t open it for her as she was sitting too far away for her to hand it to me.  Since I wanted her to be a happy little girl for the next twenty or so miles I pulled off at the next exit and while stopped at the stoplight she brought me the cupcake container and I opened it for her.

I looked around at the exit I had randomly pulled off at and just my luck there were  no visible places to easily turn around a 15 passenger van.  The GPS spoke and I decided to follow the directions of the GPS to get myself back on the freeway.  I turned and drove to the next stoplight where the GPS told me to turn right, drive for 1.1 miles and turn right again.  I thought that it was just taking me down the frontage road to the next exit onto the freeway.  We arrived at the next stop light and turned right.  The GPS spoke again, “Drive 2.2 miles and turn left.”  Hmmm ok.  Thinking that surely the expensive little technologically advanced electronic device  knew more than I as a directionally challenged person did, I followed the directions it told me.   We soon crossed over the freeway and I was in the middle of rural life. Beginning to doubt the absolute wisdom of the electronic device I looked for a place to turn around.  Seeing a  small neighborhood up ahead to my left,  I slowed down,  pulled in and turned around.  Now relying on what little I knew about where I was at I headed back to where I knew I could get back onto the freeway.  The GPS was not happy with my choice and it began to speak all sorts of advice for the direction it wanted me to go.  “Turn right on the next street then turn right again.”  What?  I could see that if I followed those directions I would be turning into a residential area which certainly would not lead me to my goal of the freeway.  No sooner did I pass by that suggested turn than the GPS said, “Turn left at the next street.”  I chose not to do that as well.  The electronic gadget gave several more random suggestions until I arrived closer to the stoplight I needed to turn left at to get back to the freeway, then it once again began giving the correct directions.

We all have a daily routine.  A beaten path of the way we do things.  Consider your daily routine for a moment,  if you go to work, what is your pre-work routine?  Your after work routine?  If you stay home all day you generally have a routine as well.  Think about it for a moment.  Are you following a routine that you like?  Or are there some things you would like to change?

Now I believe I should exercise, but it is not part of my daily routine.  I take a walk occasionally and then tell myself,  well that one walk this week was better than nothing.  Is that how we treat our spiritual walk?  Well, I went to church last week so I think it’s ok if I sleep in this week.

If we get off the beaten path of spiritual revival in our lives our inner GPS starts giving us all kinds of crazy stay off the path directions and if we followed them we really wouldn’t know where we were at and would have a hard time finding our way back on our own.  It is so easy to get off the path of spiritual revival when we don’t make our spiritual lives a priority in our daily routine.    God wants our direction.  He wants to be the true north of our compass.  If we keep our eyes on Him our direction will be true.  True spiritual revival is a beaten path.

When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O LORD, I shall seek.”  Psalm 27:8 NAS

I have set the LORD continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.  Psalm 16:8 NAS