Once there was an old sailor who always got lost at sea.  So, his friends gave him a compass and insisted that he use it.  The next time he went out in his boat he took the compass with him.  Unfortunately, he still became hopelessly lost and couldn’t find land.  After a while, his friends rescued him again.  They were upset and frustrated.  They asked him, “Why didn’t you use the compass we gave you?  It could have saved both of us a lot of trouble!”  The old sailor replied, “I couldn’t use it!  I wanted to go north, but as hard as I tried to make the needle aim in that direction, it just kept on pointing southeast.”

See, the old sailor was so certain he knew which direction was north that he tried to force his own stubborn ways on his compass.  Since he wasn’t able to do this, he tossed it aside, chalked it up as worthless, and couldn’t benefit from the guidance it offered.

Too often people view the Bible the same way.  If they can’t make the Bible say what they want it to say, they discard it.  The problem is, it doesn’t work this way.  The Bible is the ultimate compass.  It is God’s compass to heaven.  It is the only way we can know the right way to go and live.

Let’s not be stubborn and try to make the Bible say what we want it to say.  And may we never discard the Bible when it challenges what we thought was true.  Just like the old man, if we follow our own sense of morals, our own sense of direction, we are sure to get lost spiritually.  Even if we think we know the right way, let’s make SURE we know it by following God’s compass.

Brett Petrillo