<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> (Exodus 15:13)<\/p>\n I once heard a story about two young men who made a goal of riding through the Sahara Desert on motorcycles. There aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a lot of street signs in the Sahara and this was long before the days of GPS devices. They navigated by oil drum. A single oil drum marked the beginning of their journey and they could just make out another on the distant horizon. As they neared the oil drum on the horizon the one they had departed from grew fainter. When they arrived at the second drum they could just make out a third on the distant horizon. <\/span>Quite quickly after striking out for the third drum, the first disappeared completely from the horizon behind them. Their entire trip, they could never see more than three drums, and for the vast majority of their journey through the desert all they could see was two; the one behind them and the one in front. Eventually they made their way across the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest desert and most forbidding terrain, on motorcycles, navigating drum to drum.<\/p>\n I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how many oil drums it takes to get across the Sahara but I imagine it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot. Those two young men displayed a unique faith that when they left the first oil drum for the next that there would be a third somewhere on the horizon when they reached the second, and that there would be a fourth when they reached the third. Every oil drum they left on their way to the next led them deeper into the desert. At some point in their journey (they had no way of knowing when) they reached the halfway mark and with each oil drum they were traveling further out of the desert. Their perspective, however, throughout the entire trip, was just the oil drum behind and the one ahead.<\/p>\n Purpose Weekly <\/em>is all about discovering and living out the purpose for each of our lives. But that journey doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come to us in an Automobile Club \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcTrip Tik\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> (those were page by page, turn by turn map books that AAA would custom make for you before you headed out on a road trip \u00e2\u20ac\u201c way better than oil drums). Today I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a GPS suckered to my windshield. A GPS is sort of like hi-tech Trip-Tik\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s; I just punch in an address across the country and it plots the fastest course and tells me if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll arrive in time for lunch two days from now. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sort of like the oil drums too, in that it only displays the next turn, not the whole trip.<\/p>\n So what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your life journey plotted on? GPS? <\/span>AAA Trip-Tik? Oil drums? God told the prophet Jeremiah, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> (Jeremiah 1:5) God had Jeremiah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life plotted, for His purpose, before Jeremiah was born. Like Jeremiah, God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got your life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey mapped out, for His purpose, turn by turn. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> (Ephesians 1:11)<\/p>\n Your life isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t an accident and it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t an afterthought. Before the first atom of creation was spoken into existence, you were a part of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s big plan. Think about that for a second. You (and I) exist as a part of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s purpose in the universe. Your oil drums were laid out a long time ago. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll open your eyes, you can see the drum behind you and the one ahead of you.<\/p>\n A lot of religious people have argued for a long time that if God has your whole life planned out then you really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a choice in the matter; they call that \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpredestination\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em>. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re pre-destined<\/em> for whatever fate God has laid out for you, so why bother looking for the next oil drum? Just keep walking, if God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got everything laid out you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll run into it eventually. A bunch of other religious people have argued that you choose your own journey; you can either head for the next oil drum or head the opposite direction or just sit down. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s up to you whether you follow the path you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re on or strike off for a new one. This way of thinking is called \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfree will\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em>.<\/p>\n The \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpredestination\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> folks and the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfree will\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em> folks are always arguing because they think that people can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be pre-destined and<\/em> have a free will at the same time. And they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be right \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 if it was one of us laying out the route. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not one of us who laid out the route in the first place; it was Him. And He can choose us for His purpose and let us choose at the same time.<\/p>\n When Elaine and I travel, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve pretty much quit using maps and just rely on my GPS. I punch in the destination address, the GPS figures out where I am and plots a course to where I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going, and then it tells me to turn right out of our driveway. Even if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going a thousand miles from home it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll only tell me to turn right out of our driveway \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 until I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve turned right out of our driveway, then it tells me to turn left off our street. Kind of like the oil drums.<\/p>\n Another thing my GPS does is realize when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gone off course. A few seconds after I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve failed to turn right when the computer voice said \u00e2\u20ac\u0153turn right\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> the computer voice will say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153recalculating\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> (there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s edge to the computer voice when it says \u00e2\u20ac\u0153recalculating\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em>, like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frustrated that I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t follow a simple command; maybe it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just my imagination). Then it will re-plot my course and give me a new \u00e2\u20ac\u0153turn left\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153turn right\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153turn around\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> to get me back on track.<\/p>\n Maybe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how predestination and<\/em> free will work at the same time; the course is plotted and I follow it until I take a wrong turn, then the course is immediately re-plotted to steer me back on track again. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just glad I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hear a voice from heaven say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153recalculating\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> every time I screw up. That would be more than I could bear.<\/p>\n Anyway, I doubt if my little GPS story is how all that works; a lot smarter people than me have been trying to figure out the whole predestination vs. free will thing a lot longer than I have and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never gotten it completely resolved. I guess that trying to resolve questions we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not capable of figuring out is part of our human nature. Just like holding predestination and free will in His palm of His Hand in perfect harmony as part of His eternal purpose is part of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nature.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n Going back to those two guys on the motorcycles \u00e2\u20ac\u201c what do you imagine ever possessed them to cross the Sahara Desert using only oil drums as their guide? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way two sane people would cross the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s biggest desert by going from one oil drum to the next \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 unless they knew that someone had placed those drums along a specific route \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the shortest, safest path across the Sahara. That makes sense.<\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll continue to make my way from drum to drum; not because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got faith in the drums, but because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got faith in the One who put them there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Exodus 15:13) I once heard a story about two young men who made a goal of riding through the Sahara Desert on motorcycles. There aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a lot of street signs in the Sahara and this was long before the days of GPS devices. 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