Calibration (from March 25)

            Pastor Dave invited us to calibrate to our compass (Christ) today. 

            I’ve never had a good sense of direction.  I get turned around in malls, lost in small towns, and confused in cities.  I spent nineteen years in Colby, Kansas and consistently confused north with east.  I couldn’t tell you where my basement office was in terms of the compass or what part of the library it was beneath.

            Growing up (well, from age 12-18), my inner compass faced west:  the direction of Lake Michigan.  As long as I knew where the Lake was, I knew where I was.  I have never lived another place in which I have been oriented to true west.

            Here on Whidbey Island, my orientation is north:  North is Oak Harbor and church and flute choir and flute lessons and now, where Mom lives.  But north is deceptively simple.  To go north on the island, you must also go east and west.  My concept of north is a specific point, but getting there is anything but direct.

            How often is that the case—that true north is reachable only through indirect means.  Or that our compass is set for the wrong direction?  Or that we forget the map?  Or disregard the simple fact that map and compass are indispensable for the journey?