Our global positioning system

A few years ago, Mom and I read an article about a family who did the same activity every day for a year. Inspired, at the start of 2013, I decided to take a “picture of the day” everyday that year.

I’d end up with a photo from each day of the last semester of high school and the first semester of college, a perfect visual of a big life transition. (Some of my fave moments below)

At the time, I was living large on my slider-phone with the complete keyboard, leaving behind the days of T9 word and snapping the highest quality pics through the back-facing camera.

Ballin' on that full keyboard phone, Feb 10, 2013

Since the phone photos turned out about as good as photos taken with a potato, I resorted to use of my electric-blue GE 12.2 megapixel point-and-shoot camera.

With the “fancy” camera in hand, I ended 2013 having taken a picture every single day (except for two days if I'm remembering correctly...had to take those the next day).

For a few years after that, I undertook a new “thing of the day” project: A Word of the Day (2014, write one word in a journal to describe the day), Ya Learn Something New Every Day (2015, write down a new fact or skill I learned every day to test the veracity of the old adage), A Year of Thanks (2016, write a thank you note each day; hand them out at the end of each week), A Note of the Day (2017, write a note to someone every day, save them all until the end of the year, and then send them out).

In 2017, knowing my love for “things of the day,” Mom sent me a five-year Question and Answer per day journal in a care package (side note: Mom sent the BEST packages…it was like a holiday every time they arrived. Homemade cookies, granola, fun socks, little stationery sets, chocolates, tea packets, books, weird stuff that I love. THE BOMB). So, I started filling in that journal on the daily, too.

Now, I’ve started the third year of answering the questions in that book and it’s pretty cool to look back over the past entries. (I 11/10 recommend the Q&A book. Great way to check in with yourself at the end of each day and identify changes in yourself over time.)

I always cover the past answers, write my current answer, and then review them all to make sure my old-self doesn’t influence my current self.

This week, question/answers from February 22nd caught my attention: “What was your prevailing emotion today?”

"Mood for the rest of track season" -@chris_bianchini (instagram)

This year I wrote: “Satisfied. Good day subbing, good workout, good prelim race for Chris at Big Sky, good basketball game for our team even though we lost.”

Then I looked back…

2017: “Uncertainty and sick…everyone is really sick after indoor conference.”

2018: “Stress and rush. Lots to do after trip to CA…video projects, running, weights, research class HW, final projects…”

If you read “2018: A Year of Transitions,” you know I enjoy change about as much as getting poked in the nose with a sharp stick.

BUT, despite feeling like an aimless fish-out-of-water as I’ve made decisions and moved through next step since last May, this is the first time on this day in three years that I’ve expressed a positive emotion!

I’ve thought many times this year, “man, I wish I knew what to do next. If I knew what to do or where to go or where I’ll be in a year, I’d feel secure.”

Yet, despite knowing those sort of details in 2017 and 2018—what classes I’m in and which ones come next, what I’m doing at practice that day and that week, what I’m doing the next year—I felt chaotic.

Master-of-Symbolic-Anecdotes Priscilla Shirer (pictured below...don't you just wanna sit down for coffee with her? Ugh, the wisdom.) explains God’s guidance as a GPS:

I've talked about Ms. Shirer enough that I thought I should include a pic of her. Don't you just wanna sit down for a coffee with this lady?! Ugh, the wisdom.

What if we got in the car, typed in an address, and the GPS started spitting out all the directions at once?

“Turn left out of the neighborhood, drive 0.7 miles, turn right onto 132nd street, drive for three miles, turn left onto Bothell Everett Highway, drive two miles, turn right onto 161st street, your destination will be on your left.” (Directions from our house to a froyo shop 😉)

We’d freak out. “Whoa, whoa, stop! Just tell me once I get to the turn!!!”

Luckily, GPS systems do give us one step at a time, just before the subsequent direction change.

That’s God. (*hand clapping emoji x25 @PriscillaShirer because wow the use of metaphors)

He knows when we’re ready for the next direction and shows us which path to take, clear as the Australian man’s voice on your GPS.

A GPS-less trail in the wilds of WA (Heather Lake)

What’s better about God than a GPS though?

[Well, a lot of things…He’s omnipresent unlike our cell phone batteries, He never changes like our city streets do with the constant construction and weather concerns, we don't lose connection to him even in the wilderness, and oh yeah, His son is the Savior of the world…so just a few things. But on this specific metaphor:]

We can’t “make a wrong turn” and find ourselves “outside” God’s will. We can distance ourselves from God with sin, but we can’t “choose wrong” and lose out on his promises.

We see this clearly throughout 2 Samuel. (Awesome vid of the whole book if you like visuals! Otherwise, grab a read at the hyperlinks below)

In chapter 7, God promises King David that He will never remove His love from David and his family and will establish his throne forever.

For a time after that (2 Samuel 8-10), those promises seem obviously fulfilled as life in Israel overflows with victory and joy. David wins battles throughout the land. He reigns with a team of officials and together, they “do all that is right” for Israel. And in a perfect picture of Christ’s love, David restores Saul’s lame son Mephibosheth to the kingdom, inviting him to sit at the king’s table and returning to him everything that belonged to Saul.

David totally didn’t have to do that. In fact, it was custom at the time to do the opposite: to knock out all the relatives of the past king to avoid an overthrow. Not only does David allow Mephibosheth to live, but he also seeks him out and gives him a place in the kingdom.

God does this for broken sinners like us through the blood of his son, Jesus. Ugh, I just love symbolism and parallelism!!!

In 2 Samuel 11, the plot takes an about-face, starting with David’s adultery with Bathsheba and indirect murder of Uriah. Soon, because of greed, pride, and hunger for power, David’s sons commit sexual crimes, kill each other, attempt to steal the throne from their father, and draw other members of the kingdom—both knowingly and unknowingly—into sin (2 Samuel 12-18).

Readers of these passages—and the people in these stories, too, no doubt—wonder:

1. Did God change?

2. Did He change his mind about his promises to David?

The answer to both questions is, of course, a resounding “no.”

We can trust in the Lord because he is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). While our emotions and circumstances turn on a dime, He “does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).

And despite the temporary discomfort and turmoil in David’s kingdom, God did not revoke his promises. Generations later, he sent his own son, Jesus, from the line of David to save his people and reign on high forever (John 3:16).

All of God’s promises “are Yes and Amen, to the glory of God through us” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

We may not understand why we face difficult circumstances that cause us, our friends, and family physical sickness, stress, a sense of rush, and uncertainty, because we can’t see what’s up ahead.

And what a relief.

If you’d told me on February 22, 2017 everything I’d encounter from then until today, I’d have been ONE HOT MESS.

Instead, because of the kindness and goodness of His step-by-step directions, I’m “satisfied.” Over the last week especially, I’m filled with joy and gratitude for the people I’m with on a daily basis, the students I get to teach and coach, and the upcoming seasons of sports, work, weddings, holidays, and more.

(Snow fort building with the neighbors, run/lunch with friends, start of track season at LHS!)

I pray Proverbs 3:5-6 for you and me both, that in both tough and easy moments we’d “trust in the Lord with all [our hearts] and lean not on [our] own understanding; in all [our] ways, acknowledge him and he will make [our] paths straight.”