Psalm 119:67 - "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now I have kept Thy Word."
As a youth I was always prone to wander and try to violate the obvious laws of the planet to test the boundaries that were rumored to be set for me. Jumping off of a roof, falling out of a tree, or crashing my bike ... after what looked like attempts to fly... all earned me story scars and painful memories that have been embellished in an attempt to laugh them off today. Each of the events to go astray, little by little, taught me to respect gravity (as my scars would remind me). Each of the events altered my life and some even damaged and handicapped me.
The thing about these events that is a little haunting, they will either lead to fools wisdom or God's wisdom. The difference between foolishness and wisdom is lodged in the choice of foundational truths that we embrace as we develop our life experience guidance system. Without a personally embraced guidance system in the days of my youth, there would continue to be descending screams flying off of roof tops, broken tree top reminders, and a menagerie of useless bike parts strewn across the countryside all in the name of "I was just having fun!". Even my family's Sunday spiritual trips following city, country or cobblestone roads would only add mystery to my wanderlust but not call for "change" of directional systems.
The call for change of directional systems came. In a May of of my life at the end of my teens; I was not altered by a catastrophic event, but my life was radically altered forever by the Presentation and Embracing of a personal guidance system that was Beyond my sighted belief. This personal guidance system (to some would seem as blind as flying in a storm without instrumentation) took over, and I found myself with immediate and growing clarity about the direction of life. Surprisingly, this guidance system was offered to me by another so much like me (full of scars and flaws), that immediately those scars and flaws of another spoke and opened a reception that began the re-direction of my life. My eyes were now off of me, and redirected with a "New Breath" , "New Life" responsibility for others.
BIG LIT ROAD-SIGN: "BEFORE AND AFTER". There was a "Before" in my life. That "Before" carried with it all the afflictions, all the humiliation, all the bruising , and all the scarring that would be consequentially acquired on the path I chose to travel because of my gnawing desire to test the boundaries and taste the forbidden. This "Before" was guised in "My Way" or "this is just the way that I am". This was the fool's personal guidance system; BUT "After" the responsive hearing of the Word of Truth, all my scars were brought into safe keeping for my good and His Glory.
The Truth purposefully placed my life into Eternity's Joint Venture. God's Personal Guidance System, provided for by the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, pushed a big reset button in my life and had now set me free from "my way".
God's Personal Guidance System can be updated daily with no additional service fees other than the time invested for the update. The amazing thing is that a love "recharge" takes place upon every update. In time, these updates bring the past into a purposeful positioning; even our self inflicted scars are transformed into viable bridges of presentation used of God in the rescue of others.
O the beautiful light of His love that guides and shines through the scars of a willing Soul to bring personal guidance to a lost and afflicted Soul ... be willing, Let His Love Shine through you!
Isaiah 58:10 - "And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as noonday."
HLFA,
Jeff