Yearly Archive: 2008

This is just my way of inviting you to see the difference between walking in the “light” as opposed to walking in the “dark”.

When I was younger, and heard of famous blind people like Helen Keller, my mind tried to grasp what it would be like to walk through a house that some one “re-arranged” (the worst thing you could do for a blind person). There are some vague memories about a movie about a blind person. I would close my eyes and try to walk through our house in San Francisco, and hope that no one had moved anything.

Often, the strikes in the shin, or some little thing left on the floor became painful reminders that if I was really blind, someone did not care about how it changed my life. On the other hand, it was a painful reminder to me that I could have the same negative impact on other people’s lives – just rearrange it to suit me without telling or talking to anyone else. Notice the me?

More recently (see my blog on being in a cave), walking in the dark has become an exercise to “try and see” as much as possible while wandering around the house. It keeps me from waking some kid who might be asleep on the living room floor. But, sometimes we need the light. We can stumble around and hurt ourselves or others, but we miss the ease with which we could get something done with the lights on. (no jokes about “the lights are on…”)

What has me at this point again is 1 John 2 verse 11 where he says we “walk in darkness and don’t know where we are going because the darkness has blinded us”. Helps me remember to carry a little “light” with me so I can see where I’m going.

Watch out for the broken glass on the floor…

Well, not really. For a long time, we have heard that men don't ask directions. Me, I'm in love with my maps. Still have my Thomas Bros. Bay Area maps in my car. Want to know how to get where I need to be, with the least possibility of getting lost. Actually sorry to hear that the AAA is going to get out of the paper map business. Still enjoy opening a map of some state and planning a trip from point to point on that big sheet of paper.

Now along come those electronic wonders that when given a destination, they will talk to you and tell you when to turn, and which direction. People are buying the things in droves – they even come as standard in many new cars. They even have it down to the point that there are ones that can tell you where the cheapest gas is.

I wondered about the cheap gas though, because prices change between the time we pass the station going to the grocery store and returning home thirty minutes later. At any rate, the GPS will help you get where you are going (or want to go). If the GPS works like Mapquest, Google or Yahoo, then I'm not sure that it is always getting you there the best or quickest way – remember, it's tied to a computer that has never driven a mile. Someone had to give it instructions about finding the shortest path, etc., which it now passes on to you.

People put their trust in that electronic device and don't even bat an eye. Too bad they never learned to put their trust in the maps that were put together by people, and now those maps have been scanned into a computer, analyzed and spewed out at people who don't want to get lost.

Maybe we need to make a computerized Bible and call it the GLS (Global Living System). Wonder how many people would rush out and buy one. Wouldn't they be surprised at the directions they would get for their lives. The directions in 1 John 2 get pretty clear "Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did." Do I really want to go down that road? Isn't there an easier way to get thereRight.