Competing Voices

"All my bags are packed I'm ready to go..."

So goes a song by John Denver and so goes my life. I am a few ticks of the clock from hoping in my rental for the drive from Lancaster, PA to Philly to catch a plane to Florida.

I arrived in Philadelphia on Sunday night. Flying into The City of Brotherly Love enabled me to accommodate a schedule that included Sunday preaching and Monday teaching. The last few days I have been teaming up with Dr. Angie Ward to teach a doctoral seminar for our educational partners Lancaster Bible College and Capital Seminary and Graduate School. If you are wondering why I haven't been writing much, now you know. I was doing my best to bring the "A-Game" to the students of this Ph.D. cohort.

The Philly to Lancaster journey is not a familiar one for me. It was late Sunday night and dark. When the rental agent offered me a car with "free GPS" and "free XM radio" I took it. I needed all the help I could get. So I punched in the address for my hotel in Lancaster and was off. For good measure I also used the GPS on my phone.

That's where the fun began.

No sooner did I come to the proverbial fork in the road when I discovered that the two GPS systems were taking me in different directions. It's funny now, but at the time it was a bit unnerving. Two automated voices barking commands -- which should I listen to, where should I turn?

I decided to go with the familiar and trusted -- the GPS on my phone. I arrived safely and now I'm counting on it it get me back to Philly and ultimately back home.

My driving dilemma was a fresh reminder of how many conflicting voices come at me every day -- from advertisers, books I read, sales people who call, songs I hear -- it seems to be a growing list. In the face of a myriad of choices I have to go with the familiar and trusted -- the Word of God:

Your word is a lamp to my feet

and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105

Ok . . . time to go. I've got my GPS -- for the drive and for life. How about you?

The Bible is the "familiar and trusted." It is the voice to listen to, the word that informs every word, the lamp and light for this journey called life. That's why I've got to take time to read the Word of God today.