Yesterday, our family took a once-in-a-lifetime day trip from our vacation spot in southern Utah to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was a long drive, but we split it up with some fantastic food in Kanab, a little town of less the 5,000 people right at the Utah-Arizona state line.
Once we got to the Canyon, we were deciding which trail to tackle first before taking in the sunset at the end of the Cape Royal trail. The B99 was looking at a giant map of the whole Canyon, and she told me that we’d need to go right. I was looking at a sign with the trail name on it that clearly pointed left. Let me state here, for the record, that The B99 was right. But so was I. Confused? Me, too, but then the Lord spoke to me.
Maps are greater than signs. Signs can help you take a few steps here, but maps can help you travel there. Because those statements are true, maps and signs can seem to disagree.
In our case, the sign pointed left because at that point on the trail, we needed to go left to get to the place where we’d turn right and hike the rest of the way to the lookout.
The sign got me to another sign that pointed right. My direction changed, but the map didn’t.
Surely, you’re making the connection, right? So often we’re tempted to trust a sign more than the clear map of the Bible when it comes to our lives. I’m thankful for signs in my life that encourage me along the way, but I never want to trust momentary signs more than God’s eternal word.
The only way to order our steps is to trust the map always, and thank God for the signs He gives us to encourage us along the way. And when they seem to contradict one another, the map must win. When we trust that, we’ll win, too.
