Parable of the GPS

We are all on a journey on this earth, born without a map, with no known destination, no markers along the road. As we grow older, we realize our destination—Exaltation, and find maps—the scriptures, the church, a prophet—but even with these, the path here is difficult and many signposts are indistinct, or outright false. At times we may find it difficult to interpret the maps, and the path may become dim, our way unclear. We may become lost and uncertain of the trail. We may reach a dead end or a one way street when we need to go the other way.

On our trip to Los Angeles and so many times as we navigate around Los Angeles, we use GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) equipment to find our way. It has been invaluable and reminded me of how important the spirit of the Lord is in helping us navigate through life. It is an imperfect analogy, but I hope you will bear with me as I tell you my “Parable of the GPS.”

The first thing I noticed about the GPS is that its guidance was calm and unruffled. When we made a mistake and missed a turn or turned on the wrong street, it didn’t yell or scream at us or call us names, but instead simply said, “Recalculating.” The spirit never yells or gets angry. It only guides. How often in life when we see loved ones make a mistake do we yell at them and call them names, which only makes things worse. How much better would it be if we just reassessed our ways of interacting with them in the new situation, in a peaceful way.

We listened to talk on CD on our way here where a mother whose son was on the wrong track asked for counsel. She was continually telling her son all he was doing wrong and telling the Lord how to help her son. The counselor told her to “tell a chair (or some other inanimate object) all her frustrations with her son, and leave the Lord to take care of her son.” When she quit nagging and telling her son all that he was doing wrong, they had a much better relationship and she was much happier. When she stopped trying to counsel the Lord and trusted the Lord to do what was best for her son, she felt far more peace. She also talked a lot to the chair and that got rid of a lot of frustration.

Another interesting aspect of the GPS is that although we do not follow the path the GPS instructs us, and misses a turn, it continues to direct to lead us back onto the correct path. This is how Heavenly Father’s plan is and how He, the Savior and of course the Holy Ghost work; no matter how many times we make mistakes and turn away from them, they are always trying to guide us and bring us back to them.

I also noticed that sometimes when we strayed from the path, the GPS would make a circle round to the street we got off from, and we would be back to the original street we had diverged from. Other times, however, it led us a different way to the same destination. So it is with our lives. Sometimes we make mistakes or choices and lose certain opportunities that were only available at that time—school, missions, etc.—but the path the spirit leads us to allows us other opportunities that although not the same, are valuable. Perhaps we missed a mission as a youth, but serve a stake mission or a mission as a couple in our older years. Perhaps we missed attending one college, but attend another one later in life that was just as good, but we appreciate the education more at that point in our life than we would have earlier. Even when we make choices that aren’t the best, just as when we ignore the GPS, the Lord doesn’t abandon us when we return to him, and leads us in other paths that are good.

Of course this is not a license to sin, then repent and expect to receive all the blessings as though we had not sinned, but it reminds us that the Lord loves us, and desires to bless us with all the blessings we are worthy of.

Another thing I discovered about myself was that when I didn’t want to follow the GPS—such as when I accidentally put the wrong address in (I’d put the wrong city)—and it kept trying to direct me where I didn’t want to go, I became irritated and turned it off. I did not want to hear its constant telling me what to do when I wasn’t doing what it wanted. We are the same when we are going in a direction that is wrong and the spirit and others we love try to direct us back to the correct path; we become irritated at them, and eventually “shut them out.” We do this either by not listening to them when they talk to us about things we don’t want to hear or by eventually avoiding them physically.

Also, when we turn off the GPS for a while, or are in an underground garage or away from the satellite signal, it takes a few minutes to get it back again. It doesn’t automatically bounce back up immediately. So it is when we “turn off” the spirit; it takes time to bring it back. We must work at getting the spirit back, and be patient until we can communicate again with the spirit.

Another aspect of the GPS is that rarely do we see the whole picture at once as we do with a map. We see only until the next marker. It doesn’t show us what lies along the way only what is just ahead. I bought a map so I could see “the whole picture” --where we were in relationship to the area shown on the GPS--because I am a visual person. However, our spiritual GPS does not tell us how far we must go until a trial is over; we don’t know whether it is almost over or whether it will go on for many more years. It doesn’t tell us what is coming, happiness or sadness; we can only see until the next marker.

Also, the GPS needs power, just as our spiritual communication needs power. Neither work in a vacuum without effort or energy. The GPS uses electricity and radio waves attuned to satellite signals, while our spiritual communication uses spiritual energy, faith, keeping the commandments, and effort. Both can be easily blocked—by interference in the GPS’s case, by sin or negligence in our case.

My GPS parable is conditioned on the idea that the spirit of God is our personal GPS to help us navigate our personal path through life. We are still in charge. We still determine where we go and where we end up. The GPS can only guide—it cannot control our destination. We are the drivers of our destiny.