If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. John 14:15-17

A few years ago, we drove to London to be with a friend who recently lost her loving husband to cancer. Firstly, I dread driving on the motorway and secondly, London is huge and one may still get lost even with a friend like Sat Nav (SN). The reason is simple. I doubt the capabilities of SN. I always find myself saying, ‘I think I should be going that way’ or ‘this cannot be the way’. This might be true for many of us. So yesterday was one of those days.

I had decided on the No-Toll option when mapping out the journey. The journey had been smooth for a while until SN took us onto a road that was by the docks; where we were required to join a long queue. Ahead of us was the notice ‘1 hour delay with the boat, thank you for your patience’. I looked at my daughter who sat beside me and said to her, ‘wrong queue.’ We drove past and expected SN to talk but he didn’t. We continued to drive to get our bearings when we heard ‘bear right; at the roundabout take the third exit, bear left; at the roundabout take the 1st exit’. Much to our surprise, we found ourselves back at the same boat queue! I wondered why we were there but this time I decided to go where SN was leading. Eventually we were on a ferry to be taken to the other side. I even forgot about SN with all that was going on around us.

Finally we were on the other side of the river where we disembarked and took the obvious route where the arrows were pointing out and then we heard the familiar voice, ‘at the roundabout take the 2nd exit.’ Ah! That was SN. I was relieved to hear him and I felt secure. He continued to lead us until we got to our destination!

This got me thinking.

How many times do we fail by not allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us? He knows where we should go but many a times we do not think he knows. We think we know where the Holy Spirit should lead us.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come, he will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” John 16:12-15

That day I learnt how important it is to allow the Holy Spirit to lead me even when it does not seem like the right way to go.