In the Summer of 1975, I got lost in the woods of Central Wisconsin….
Michelle and I were in the “jungle camp” phase of our missionary training. We had set off in the morning with the objective of finding a tent pitched in a clearing. We had two backpacks: one for food, the other for our nearly two-year-old son, Paul. The tent was about three miles away. We had to find it using only a compass.
The task seemed simple enough, especially for me. After all, I was a proficient combat infantryman in Vietnam who could find anything and hit anything. Find a tent? No problem!
But I couldn’t find that tent.
We wandered for hours, Michelle seeking to follow the lead of her head, (who was clueless). As the sun began to fade in the Wisconsin summer sky, I finally did what every man absolutely hates—I went back and asked directions. Reeking with pride? Of course. That morning, I failed to do two things before setting off. First, I assumed I knew just how to use the compass and didn’t need someone else to tell me what I already knew—so, of course, I didn’t ask. The second (and related to the first) was that I didn’t consciously walk in dependence upon the Lord to guide our steps.
Did I learn the lesson? Here’s a clue: five years later, I was taken under the wing of the son of the Manjack chief (while we lived as missionaries in Senegal, West Africa). He gave me their family name: Donky. That proud family name was to be my Father’s not always subtle reminder of who I am—in myself. In the ensuing years, God allowed me the same lesson many more times. I just didn’t get it; the “it” an essential life truth, a truth that the Lord sought to teach his people right from the beginning: He created man to need counsel.
The Genesis account teaches more than the creation and fall. It teaches us much about the nature of our Creator and about man (male and female) created in His image. In the on-going relationship they had before the serpent entered, God had already given counsel to Adam. And Adam, on the way to being lost, did not seek to elicit additional counsel—he didn’t ask directions.
I have learned in the ensuing years that I cannot undo that, nor can I change my own past. I only have this moment and whatever else God chooses to give me. But I am learning to do the two things that I failed to do on that long-ago summer day: I can continue to seek direction on the proper use of the “compass” that we have been given (I mean, of course, the Scripture). Secondly, I can walk in dependence upon the Lord, the Spirit who illuminates the Compass.
Here are four things I must never forget: I need the compass. I must use the compass. I must keep learning how to use the compass. I must live in dependence on the Maker of the compass.
I need the compass (God’s Word). I said above, “God created man to need counsel.” If you ask me for a proof-text, I’ll simply place a whole Bible into your hand! God’s Word is not a strung-together series of stories and disconnected commands through which we learn how to jump through hoops for God. It is, rather, a purposeful, embroidered whole, designed by the Creator in such a way that I might know the LORD, who alone is God, and to know His directions (Col 1:9; 2 Pet 1:3). It is real answers for real life. Jesus Christ, who was certainly a man’s Man, asked directions continually (prayer). And, He used the Compass.
For instruction on its use, that same Compass points to Christ’s Body, the Church, where I can keep learning to use the Compass and not be tossed by every wind of doctrine (Eph 4:13,14), and so grow into a mature man (the image of Christ). I must depend on His Spirit to illuminate the Compass, then follow Him. Authentic humans (that is, people who have been reconciled to God and become children of the Father) need directions. It is (sorry, ladies) not only men who need direction. Where are we going? How will we get there?
Take it from this Donky, you don't have to live life led around with a bit and bridle.
(The substance of this essay was published in The Calvary Review of Calvary Bible Church, Burbank, California, in May, 2006)
There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance: his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt.
ReplyDelete- Pudd'nhead Wilson
(Mark Twain)
Walt, I got lost looking for the tent, too! But, I stumbled across the property line and followed that, and it eventually led me to the tent!
ReplyDeleteMy experiences did nothing to assist me here in Thailand... I managed to get lost a couple of times in the jungles, alone and without a compass. A compass wouldn't have helped anyway, since they never seem to point in the right direction when I am holding one.
I went around in circles a few times and then did what you did - I went back to the last place I had been where people were and asked how to get out of there!
God bless you on your journey!