003 Trust the Compass

Years ago, when I was a young teenager in the mid 1970’s, I was out on a boat with my dad in the San Francisco Bay. When heavy fog came in, my dad jumped at the opportunity to teach me how to use and trust a compass to navigate the boat. Using the compass itself was very simple but trusting it was difficult.   My mind kept telling me to veer away from the compass's navigation. Fog moves. As it was drifting to the right, my mind kept telling me to veer the boat to the left to seemingly correct my direction. I was used to trusting my perceptions, at least to some degree, and I wanted to follow them. I was not used to trusting a compass. My dad was watching me deal with this challenge and kept reminding me to trust the compass. With his constant reminders, and my submission to trusting the compass, we arrived safely at our destination.
          Today I understand that this lesson transfers directly over to trusting the compass of the Gospel. We are so used to relying on our own perceptions of what we see and know that it makes it difficult to purely trust the Gospel: it seems like using a compass in the fog of life. When I was steering the boat through the dense fog, I had no proof that our advancements were in the right direction except that the compass said so. I saw no immediate beneficial results! As I stayed the course following the compass instead of my own understanding, the right results were evidenced. When we are not seeing results from following the Gospel, the Adversary may try to sway us off course and provide "insights" to solve the problem. But if we do not veer from the compass of the Gospel, it's power will produce its results. Trust the compass!

"The gospel is the power of God unto wholeness

to everyone who believes." (Romans 1:16)