Friday, April 24, 2009

Treasure Hunting: My GPS, a geocache, and God

Yesterday, I took the day off to spend it with my wife.  We needed time to be alone and make some decisions together.  So we headed out to spend the day at Tickfaw State Park to go geocaching.  

For you who may be unaware, geocaching is a global GPS and online treasure hunting game.  Basically, you go online to find the coordinates of a cache.  Once you get the location you use a GPS to go to the place and then hunt for the cache which is usually hidden very cleverly.  

In Tickfaw State Park there are at least 4 caches hidden.  So Heather and I decided to spend the day hunting them down.  This was also a great opportunity to spend some much needed time together without children and other distractions.  Recently, our family has been faced with some weighty decisions.  Heather and I needed to talk, pray, and determine the best direction for our family.  As we walked around the park hunting the cache treasures, I was struck with the realization that I was doing the same thing with God.  I was just wondering around hoping I would stumble across God's direction for my life and the life of my family.

Then God spoke.  God doesn't hide Himself and His will from me.  In fact, just the opposite.  God wants me to know what He wants for me.  I don't have to go "geocaching" or "easter egg hunting" in order to find God's will.  I just have to stop and listen.  Not only will He tell me what to do and where to go, He will tell me the costs of following Him.

Just like hunting those caches...some of them would warn you that there was poison ivy or water and to be prepared.  God will warn you ahead of time what the cost of following Him will be. 

At the end of the day, we found 3 of the 4 caches we hunted for and we found the next step for our family in many areas of life.  Not because of the hunt, but because we stopped and listened to God speak.  

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