Yesterday, I drove to an appointment. On the way there, I got stuck in traffic. The road I was on normally flows fine. But it was backed up for some reason.
The three cars ahead of me took a left-hand turn and went down a different road. One I’ve never been on before. I assumed it was a detour and these three people knew how to short-circuit the traffic to get on the main street where I was headed.
Well, after following them for a whole 5 minutes, they each broke in different directions. Each car ended up in different parking lots in the same neighborhood. Hmmm . . .
After about 10 minutes of getting lost in a maze of cul-de-sacs and dead ends, I found my way back to the very road I was stuck on. The traffic was gone this time (15 minutes later).
One of my spiritual disciplines is to ask the Lord why something out-of-the-ordinary happens . . . as I believe my “steps are ordered” and everything happens for a reason (Psalm 37:23).
Sometimes He reveals the reasons; other times He doesn’t.
All told, the whole ordeal brought a point home to my heart.
Before you follow someone’s spiritual direction, make sure you know where they’re headed. Be clear on their destination . . . their goal. Don’t assume you know.
And never follow just because others are following.
On the road yesterday, I gave in to a human instinct: To follow the crowd, assuming that their goal was the same as mine.
Amid the traffic, the three cars ahead of me made the same turn. So I thought to myself, “Surely, they know a detour to get us out of this bottle neck. I’ll follow them.”
I was wrong. They were all headed to different places. None of which was the road I needed to be on.
Think about the ministries you currently “follow” (i.e., receive from spiritually) and ask: Is their destination Jesus Christ or is it some cause, fad, or other goal? Are they leading me to HIM? Are they giving me Christ?
As I explained in The Myth of Christian Leadership, every Christian leads in some arena. And we all follow the “leads” of others in one way or another.
But the destination of such leadership must be the Lord Jesus Christ. For He alone is God’s Center and Goal.
In many cases where Christ is the supreme goal, the crowds who follow aren’t terribly large.
For me (at least), one of the greatest compliments that can ever be paid a servant of God is,
“He/she gave me Christ, a breathtaking vision of God’s eternal purpose in Him, an example of how to return good for evil, and a heart for the poor and the oppressed. He/she gave me Jesus.”
May these words be true for all who have put their hand to the plow of God’s work.
‘Before you follow someone’s spiritual direction, make sure you know where they’re headed.’
What a wise piece of advice! I know I’m tempted to blindly follow people who set off confidently – literally (like with finding a new route around traffic) and also metaphorically. One of my pet hates is when people say something with more confidence than they actually have; it makes me feel like I’m being manipulated to go along with their opinion.
I suppose you can flip it round, so when we are in any kind of leadership position, or seeking to persuade others, we should not seek to manipulate others to follow our lead. State our opinions and reasons but respect their self-identity by leaving them to decide what way they will go.
Many years ago I was registering to attend college and the paper I received in the mail said to line up at the North door to a particular building. I got there about an hour and a half early. There were about five people in front of me but on the other side of the building (the south door) a line had formed that went half way around the entire building. I wondered if I had read the instructions wrong and that I might end up in the back of that long line. I took out the paper with the instructions on it several times to make sure I was in the right door. About ten minutes before the opening of the doors a whole mob of people ran toward me to line up behind me. I was right and the crowd was wrong…go figure.
I wonder if there is a lemming gene – or maybe it’s just hard to stand contrary to the place where everone else is.
I love the point how our steps are ordered by him. I actually had two mistakes this week and this helped me rethink why the Lord might have allowed it to happen. Like you said sometimes he does sometimes he doesn’t show you why. I got some gems from this post brother and a very good warning for every believer.
The crowd follows in this way: One person walks away, another decides to follow him that thinking he looks like he knows where to go. One after another they followed, soon the crowd is all following the first person that walked away. Now, that gentleman that walked away might be a cleaver person, but he wasn’t acting on some high wisdom, he merely was going to the restroom. And the whole crowd met him as he walked out the restroom door, imagine his surprise.
“He gave me Christ,a breathtaking vision of God’s eternal purpose in Him,an example of how to return good for evil,and a heart for the poor and oppressed. He gave me Jesus.” Thanks Frank! You do this for us each day.
Wow, that was good. I’m listening.
So then there’s this scenario: you’re stuck in traffic that is lined up for miles. Suddenly you see an exit to a parallel road but nobody is taking it and you wonder if they know better because they know the territory. Because you hate being stuck more than you hate the idea of making a bad move, you decide to take a risk and veer off away from the traffic. To your delight the parallel road leads you all the way to where you want to go.
The problem is staying on the less travelled road. Because you don’t know exactly where the strange road is leading. It’s tempting to get back onto the crowded road where everybody seems to at least know where they’re going and maybe to do; they’re just not moving as fast.
One day on page 532 of my book I was standing at the Holocaust museum in Washington before the doors opened. I was with a crowd waiting to get in. We kept waiting – looking at the doors. To the left I noticed one person who simply opened the door to the left of the crowd and went in. But everyone kept standing around looking at the door in front of us. Ever since, I’ve always thought, why didn’t I follow that person that knew the way in? And then the fact that it was the Holocaust museum really gave me pause.
Frank, you certainly have given me a breathtaking vision of God’s eternal purpose and returning good for evil (still a lot of work to do on that one) Thank you! The only other I can think of is a group of women that met for prayer weekly. I was young and a young, clueless Christian, but this is where I fell in love with Jesus. I’m still in love!!
Very timely; I needed this reminder today.
Frank,
Thank you. In the past week or so there has been a paradigm shift in my life. I have seen the divine mystery expressed and I have been captured. That said I now see Christ like I have never seen Him before and I wanted to say thank you for taking the time to express Christ here.
Any leading that does not go towards Him is a waste of precious time. My time spent reading here is not a waste.
In Him,
Dan
Ummm, but if “your steps are ordered” and “everything happens for a reason”, it wasn’t really your choice and you weren’t actually following the 3 cars. You were simply following the blueprint ordained by God before the foundation of the world.
Sorry. I know that comment was an exercise in missing the point. I liked the point and agree with it.
Lol. Your speaking from a human viewpoint. Back up and look at it from the eternals. God foresaw all that would happen with everyone . . . including when I lose a button, which I did yesterday. And He is all powerful so He could change any of it before it happens. So Him allowing it prescribes predestination which the Bible teaches. It also prescribes free will, which is exemplified in my decision to follow those cars. It is one of the many paradoxes of Scripture. As I’ve put it elsewhere, life is a 2,000 page book. Only God has the ability to see the whole book. We can only see pages 500 to 600. This is where trust comes in and not leaning to our own understanding. Anyways, you are right that this is off the point.