God and satnav

One of the privileges I have is being chaplain to Doncaster Rovers FC. I will soon be starting my third season with the Rovers, and it has been a real pleasure to see a football club from the inside, and get to know both the players and the other staff at the club.

I am a member of the sports chaplains organisation, SCORE. Every few months we have a regional meeting. A couple of weeks ago we had such a meeting at Valley Parade, the home of Bradford City FC. Having arrived safely, a few of us were extolling the virtues of satellite navigation systems. One of our number made a comment which I can wholeheartedly agree with, namely that his satnav had cut down considerably on the number of arguments he has with his wife in the car! I can think back to many times over the years when Sue and I got a bit hot under the collar when we were trying to work out a route.

The first satnav we owned had a rather shrill female voice. "She" reminded me of an old fashioned school teacher - very bossy. On those occasions when I failed to obey her instructions, she cried out "recalculating!" in a very accusing manner. I was almost made to feel as if I'd committed a grave offence which was causing her much inconvenience.

Our current satnav is much more gentle. I have selected the male voice, but I think it would be the same whichever the gender of the voice. With this satnav, when I make a mistake and don't follow his instructions, there is no accusing cry, he simply and quietly recalculates the route and provides the revised instructions.

One of my colleagues at the SCORE meeting pointed out how this reminds him of how God deals with us. God has a plan for our lives. However, there are times when we mess up, either by mistake or by deliberate disobedience, and travel down a wrong route. In those times, God doesn't shout at us or wag his finger in an accusing way. Rather, he is able to work even our wrongdoing for good. If we come back to him and admit the error of our ways, he gently and lovingly guides us back onto the right path, so that we can accomplish his purpose. What an amazing and gracious God we have!