It’s the last hours of the night. You’re driving down a highway toward the east. After a refueling stop, you get back on the highway, but now it feels like you’re going west. The highway sign assures you that you’re still going east. You check your navigation screen and it, too, says you are going east. But it feels wrong.
What do you do? You go by facts, not feelings. You trust the highway signs and the GPS even when something inside your head is turned around.
Later, the first signs of dawn begin to illuminate the eastern sky. As the sun begins to rise, it ceases to be a question of road signs. Now you know. The sun rising in the east gives your brain a new, perfect sense of orientation. You’re going east. There’s no question. You begin to wonder how you had ever felt so confused.
Feelings can sometimes lead us astray. We must orient our paths to what we know is true.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board, John F. Kennedy Jr’s 1999 plane crash came as a result of “spatial disorientation.” Encyclopaedia Britannica defines “spatial disorientation” as “the inability of a person to determine his true body position, motion, and altitude relative to the earth or his surroundings.”
The young Kennedy was only certified to fly under visual flight rules. He was not instrument rated. He had to go by sight. We become disoriented when we have nothing by which to orient ourselves, or when we try to orient ourselves by something false.
And that’s where the world is right now. In previous generations, most of even non-Christians held to certain truths. But in this generation, it’s all being turned on its head. Romans 1:18 speaks of those “who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” That’s happening right now.
Proverbs 22:28 says, “Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set.” That verse deals primarily with property rights. Don’t move the property line marker. But it also speaks of those who remove God’s moral standards by which we can orient our lives. Removing the standards is especially cruel to children.
In Jeremiah 6:16, the Lord says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls.” It’s hard to find the good path when the ancient landmark has been removed.
Sometimes as Christians, we have to fly on instruments. Don’t go by feelings, but by God’s word. Do what is right even when you don’t feel like it.
The great thing for the Lord’s followers is that we have more than instruments and landmarks. We have Jesus. He called Himself “the Good Shepherd.” A shepherd walks with his sheep, directing them and keeping them safe.
So, in these troubled and troubling times, hold fast to God’s word and walk close to the Good Shepherd.
