Going in Circles and/or Going South

For a year and a half before Altha and I moved to Arizona, I prayed and listened for the Lord's assurances. What followed were many confirmations. And when I was invited to mentor students at Phoenix Seminary, with the possibility to teach, I saw God at work.  Over the next months, one obstacle after another was removed and the path ahead became clear and straight.

But within days after moving to Arizona, my diagnosis of pancreatic cancer turned those plans on their head—‘everything started going south’ (an idiom I’ve spoken of before in this blog). After my ‘Whipple’ surgery, the Lord led us back to California where family (our daughter) and friends could support us thru the chemo/radiation therapies that lie ahead.

Honestly, I can tell you it seemed regressive to me—I was going in circles. But nothing in God’s methods is regressive. But progressive. And though it seemed my life was headed ‘south,’ God assured me it was not. Then this morning the Spirit led me to Deuteronomy, where God speaks to Moses, “You have circled this mountain long enough; now turn North” (2:2-3).

Are you presently feeling like your life is going in circles? Even worse, are you feeling like your life is “going south?” It may look that way by the natural eye. But by faith, you can be sure it is going in a straight line—straight into God’s blessed purposes for you. Before long, I know you will hear Him say, “Things have been going south long enough. But soon they will be turning north!”

The Economy is Not the Only Thing "Going South"

Allegorically speaking, we all have an internal compass. When God originally designed Adam, He set the compass on “North,” pointing to Himself. We could say the compass kept Adam heavenly-minded or God-centered. After Adam sinned, the compass was reset to “South,” earth bound and self-centered. In my experience, that seems to be the “default” setting!

Every night while I sleep, my compass seems to reset itself to this default position. I awake to find my compass needle pointing “south.”

This expression "gone south" is used to define failure. Afer the Civil War, the term gone south was coined, meaning anything from the South was a failure. In recent contemporary use, the sluggish economy is described as going south.

If you have any of your self-life left at all, your compass needs to be reset each morning, to the “North,” heavenly-minded and God-directed. I wonder if this is what Paul meant when he said: Set your mind [compass] on things above, not on the things on earth (Colossians 3:2).

When you awoke this morning, in what direction was the needle on your internal compass set?

Did you reset it?