What am I talking about? Road navigation, of course. Being able to take verbal driving directions on how to get anywhere is not a skill I have. Even when my friends bring up their favorite restaurant and they attempt to tell me where it is, they could give me step-by-step directions from my very own house and I still wouldn't know where it is or how to get there. Verbal directions, of course; written routes are different.
Thankfully, my grandparents helped me out a few years ago. They gave me their GPS unit. Now, you may be thinking this isn't a particularly exciting gift, but I was ecstatic when they gave me the GPS. I could finally find my way in the tangle of the road system regardless of where I wanted to go. No longer did I have to print instructions every time I went somewhere new, or stay on the phone as someone gave me step-by-step directions.
All of this happened before I had a smartphone—today I just punch in an address and Google figures out the best way.
The Trip
A few years ago, my cousin and best friend invited me to go with him and his friends on a skiing trip. I wanted to go, but for whatever reason, I had to leave very late at night. Well, while I had misgivings about leaving so late, I gathered my things, prepared my fairly new (to me) GPS, and got into the family's Ford Explorer.
Despite my dependence on my precious GPS, even I noticed it didn't always give me the fastest route to my destinations. I, ever the optimizer, tried to fix this.
Before leaving home for the hotel my friends and I were to meet at, I looked into the "advanced" settings of the device. I found a very interesting entry there. I could select the following for how the GPS calculated my route:
- Fastest (Recommended)
- Shortest
- Scenic
After calculating my route based on both the 'Fastest' and 'Shortest', I found the routes didn't look like they differed too much. The 'Shortest' was several miles shorter, and I thought this would be a great time to try out this mode of operation.
Later on, I would learn exactly what the settings meant, and there is a warning to users changing this setting. The first, and selected by default, calculated the route based on several metrics to give the fastest time-based route. 'Shortest' gave you the shortest possible route distance-wise. 'Scenic', of course, gave you a nice ride with a view, but could be much longer. The resource I found also noted the user should not change this setting unless they knew what they were doing.
Well, you already know exactly what I did. I changed the setting from 'Fastest (Recommended)' to 'Shortest'. What could it hurt, right?
The (Almost) Disaster
Beginning my journey, it started like any other drive at night. You know, noticing how few cars are on the road and how much better the radio music seems at night. Within an hour of driving, the route seemed to be taking me to some strange parts of Georgia, but I had never been to this area before and trusted my faithful GPS. What began as some odd looking turns and scenery quickly turned to a really, really scary experience.
Seeing as I was going to a ski slope, I obviously had to go to into mountains; however, the GPS told me to go down these roads that looked downright dangerous. Of course, the GPS can never be wrong, right? Against my better judgement, I turned down this particular dirt road. In the mountains. In the winter. In the dead of the night. (Cue dramatic music)
Finally coming to my senses only when my GPS told me to go down a non-existent road, I realized just how much trouble I was in. Turning around and heading back, I became fully aware of the ice and snow I had blithely passed coming down this treacherous road. Suddenly, I went from having a few misgivings about the route to being afraid I might not make it out of these woods until morning. Getting stuck in the mountains was a real possibility, and, while I had a cell phone, I had no idea how long it would take to get out.
Slipping, sliding, and praying, I knew I was in a situation I could have prevented a long time ago if I had heeded the warning flags. Between asking God for help and asking myself how stupid could I be, I faced a hill covered with ice and a mean looking ditch. On the first attempt to climb it, I went slowly and carefully with the sound of snow crunching loud in my ears. Half way up, the tires started slipping and I went sliding back down as I pumped the brakes as hard as I could. Trying to keep the SUV on the road, having no control, branches scraping the side like claws of a scary monster. The truck careened to the left as it entered the ditch, finally stopping.
Cautiously exiting the truck to examine my situation, I didn't like what I saw. There was no damage, but I was squarely in the ditch on this precarious incline with snow everywhere. Climbing back into the driver's seat, I put it in reverse and attempted to back out of the ditch. Shaking, shuddering, and slipping, I went nowhere. Conscious to not melt a hole I wouldn't be able to get out of, I shifted into drive and tried the forward direction with more tremors and a terrifying, slow slide off the road. Stopping my motion, I reevaluated my situation and options. The truck was outfitted with four-wheel drive, but it had a record of sketchy results and issues. I was reluctant to use it, but I didn't see another option.
Switching the 4WD on, I attempted to get out of this frozen ditch. This time, again accompanied with the same shaking and noise I had felt before, the truck seemed to respond much better to my coaxing, but not before I started to again fear I was simply digging a deeper hole.
Stepping out again, I tried to clear the area around the tires of snow. I felt like the truck just needed a little extra push to get out with the engine powering all the wheels. Pushing some branches and rocks under and behind the tires as best I could, I hoped this attempt would get me out of this predicament. Getting back in the truck, but not closing the door, I resolved to give this effort my all and push with my leg to climb out of this ditch. Perhaps not the safest of ideas, but it is what it is.
With my foot against the snow, which was quite close due tilt of the truck, I shifted into reverse and pushed both the gas petal and against the snow covered ground. Shaking horribly, branches scraping, the truck moved backwards out of the ditch. I closed the door, and backed down to safety at the foot of the hill.
Catching my breath, I realized, while I was much better off now that I had unstuck the truck, I still had the issue of the hill. Getting out once again, I walked up the hill to see if there was a path that wasn't as precarious as the left side. I found there was only a small patch of ice where I had previously slid off, but it covered most of the way across the road. I thought if went up the hill faster than I my previous effort, I might be able to use the truck's momentum to get past the ice, especially if I coasted and didn't try to use the throttle up that section (so as to prevent one side having traction and turning the vehicle sideways with the unbalanced forces).
After all, Newton tells us an object in motion will stay in motion unless a force acts on it. With the ice providing a near friction-less surface, I figured the truck would be able to sail past the ice and not have an issue. Admittedly, in retrospect, this plan is probably quite stupid, but I backed the truck up and gained what I thought was a happy medium between going too fast and not fast enough. I sailed over the hill and had no trouble with the rest of the dirt road, although I continued to realize how dangerous this road was.
Getting back to the beloved asphalt, I turned the GPS back to the 'Fastest (Recommended)' route setting. It immediately directed me to a very nice and wide highway with no snow or ice to be seen. The rest of my journey to the hotel was uneventful and I had a wonderful time skiing with my friends.
Moral of the Story
I was reminded of this crazy journey from years ago by an article by Christian comedian Brad Stine. In his article about travelling with a GPS, he draws the analogy of God being our GPS in life—always right, and always ready to give us a new route in spite of our choice of direction.
When I switched my GPS's mode of operation, I was telling the GPS I knew better than its makers how to calculate a route. Not only did I presume to know better, I didn't even look in the manual to see if it was a good choice; if I had, I might have recognized the designers didn't really intend for this setting to be set without prior knowledge of the significance of the changes in the algorithms. Additionally, I also ignored many red flags during the trip that something was amiss—the narrow, twisty roads half-way into the trip; the dirt road that looked like it led to nowhere. Nevertheless, I continued on my erroneous path based on a faulty presumption that led me to a bad situation.
While this sounds like a stupid teenager mistake, we do this all the time with God. We make a presumption about something God has already covered in his manual without actually looking it up and then ignore his warning signs, continuing into a predictably bad situation. Even if we continue to follow what our GPS (God) says to do, we are reinterpreting everything he says through our faulty assumption. Following reinterpreted instructions from God is like following a GPS set to 'Shortest' route calculation: God will eventually get you where he wants you, but you'll have times when the GPS tells you to go where there isn't a road and you are stuck in a ditch, frantically asking God for help. At that point, you might not be following God's directions, but God's directions reinterpreted by your own preconceptions.
How do we make a faulty presumption and end up following erroneous instructions? Well, we try to fix something, but don't even consult our manual, the Bible, to see if what we want to fix is there by design. For instance, there are Christians who want to make the Bible's message more appealing to the general public by "fixing" things they perceive to be detractors to the Gospel. A few common "fixes", although there are many more to be sure, include today's hot controversies: abortion, homosexuality, and evolution. An incomplete list, to be sure, but each entry conveys my point: each of these topics is covered in the Bible and are plainly stated or can be inferred easily. A "fix" to any of these areas distorts our interpretation of the Bible and will hinder us from receiving God's directions.
Therefore, be sure you aren't changing a setting the manual states is clearly not meant to be changed. It might look like an appealing option initially, but you will be regretting it later when you hit some ice and find yourself in a ditch. Furthermore, God gave us capable minds for us to come to reasonable conclusions about our circumstances, along with a conscious to warn us when we are doing something wrong—don't ignore those warnings.
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