DAY 23: do something new. a devotional...kind of.

ok so I was supposed to take a picture of what I thought was true (it was a bible study homework assignment). and the first thing I thought of was a compass. you know, like, a true reading?

So, I grab my compass and my camera and I run outside. (bible study was going to start in 30 minutes. I really am a college student when you consider how proficient I am at procrastinating homework assignments and then completing them right before they're due.)

I put my compass down on the porch so I can take a pic....and the reading is TOTALLY OFF. the needle was pointing due east. what is going on?

I move the compass, thinking maybe the needle isn't level and that's what's throwing off the reading.
the needle moves to north. and then I see the little screw next to where the compass had been. a screw made of metal.

then I started thinking:

WE are the compass needle. we point towards magnetic pulls, which is usually magnetic north, but sometimes that can be offset by other magnetic pulls, like a screw. and screws can be an example for worldly attractions. if we get to close to them, we point towards them instead of north.

and did you know that magnetic north (what a compass points towards) does not point to True North (what the North Star points towards)? so lets just assume that as the compass needle, we get as close to we can to north as we possibly can. HOWEVER, that is not actually an accurate reading on North. The only accurate reading for that is the North Star. and lets just say that the North Star is God. he is North, he is unchanging, he is true.

Sometimes we will think "oh, i'm fine, i'm pointing towards north. other people are way off, pointing towards the world, not towards north, so I'M FINE". but the thing is, is if we keep following our slightly-off reading of magnetic north, we will be MILES off by the time we get to where our destination should be. Our only way to get to NORTH is by saying "ok, so THERE is the North Star, and the general direction of north is the way my needle is pointing, so i'm gonna follow that True north, and make sure that my needle is pointing is the same direction."

our job as Christians is to point towards Him. We need to keep ourselves far enough away from worldy attractions and other magnetic pulls so that we can point towards North, as much as we can.  then, we need to check our magnetic north reading with the True North, the North Star, God, to make sure we're pointing in the right direction.

not to ask the obvious question or anything....but which way are you pointing?