Course Corrections

Most of the time I have a fairly good sense of direction, which is one reason I scoff at the idea of a GPS. Who needs satellite positioning and step by step directions when you have a map? Who needs “Sari” or any number of available GPS voices to walk you through the step by step process, when you know where you are going and a vague sense of how to get there? I am usually fairly confident that I can figure things out on my own. Sometimes, that confidence works out well, and sometimes, well let’s say I can hear the voice in my head saying “recalculating.” Sometimes, I have to admit, I do find myself on entirely the wrong road, or the right road heading in the opposite direction from where I need to be.

Am I alone here? Or can many of us sometime think we are on the right course, even when we are confidently heading in the wrong direction? Even when we don’t like to admit it, we sometimes need a “Sari” or someone to intervene and get our attention. We need someone to alert us that we are headed on the wrong path. We need someone to correct our course and to get us back on the right path to our destination.

The Tower of Babel is the story of God intervening and correcting the course of mankind. He needed to get their attention. God had instructed mankind from the very beginning, Genesis 1:28, to “Be fruitful and increase in number: fill the whole earth and subdue it.” Yet, in the story of Babel, the people have forgotten those words. Their goal is to isolate themselves, to build a wall around the city, to keep to themselves, to keep from being scattered all across the earth. God wanted them to fill the earth, and they wanted to keep from filling the earth and stay in their nice comfort zone with each other. You can almost hear them asking, Why do we need anyone else? Why do we need to go anywhere else? We have everything we need right here. Let’s stay here forever.

But that was never God’s design. God called Abram out of his country, Genesis 12; He sent Paul to the Gentiles throughout Asia, (Acts). He calls us to take His love to the nations, to go into Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8). He calls us to follow Him, wherever He leads, whether here at home or far abroad, across town serving or across the world.

And in the story of Babel, when ALL the people unanimously decided they didn’t need to follow, that they needed to stay and make for themselves a name and a tower, they were heading in the wrong direction, directly away from what God had commanded. Stephen Covey says leaders make sure the ladders they are climbing are leaning against the right walls. And here, no one was leading, no one was asking if they were doing the right thing. No one was speaking up reminding them of God’s greater purpose and His will.

So, God intervened and got their attention. He sent them a much-needed course correction, to re-orient the whole group of them to His will. He scattered them across the earth. He put them exactly where He wanted them to be all along, all over the earth. I can imagine His voice, saying “recalculating.”
It’s similar to the story of Jonah. God called Jonah to go and preach to the city of Ninevah. Jonah didn’t want to go, so he headed in the opposite direction. But God is sovereign and He issues course corrections, as needed. He got Jonah’s attention and redirected his path. God used a whale and some fishermen to accomplish His will. And He put Jonah back on the path to Ninevah, where He wanted Jonah all along.

That can seem kind of harsh, if we just look at the surface. God is sovereign and He is going to accomplish His will regardless. But if we look at His will, we see it’s not harsh at all. It’s because of His great love for us that He guides us and corrects us. As a loving Father, He wants the best for us, even if that means disciplining us. He works all things out for good in our lives and like a good Father, He has good things in store. Sometimes that means keeping us from the danger of ourselves, and sometimes that means getting our attention when we are heading in the wrong direction. God had great plans for Jonah’s life – to use him to ignite a large revival and bring a whole people group back to God. God used Babel for good by placing people all over the earth. From the very beginning God’s design was for all the nations and all the earth to know Him, His truth and His great love. A message that we are never to forget (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) and one that Jesus would again command us to fulfill (Matthew 28:19-20).

God’s discipline is unpleasant at times, but I’m so glad that He is a loving Father that doesn’t allow us to continue down the wrong roads. I’m thankful for the course corrections in my life. They are proofs of a Father’s love and His master plan.

“Our Fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12: 10-11). Read another blog post on these verses here.

When has God corrected your course? In what ways has God’s discipline in your life brought a harvest of righteousness? Please share your comments and stories.