Most of us have used a GPS – so we know about the importance of the destination input.  If you want to get where you want – you need to know where you want to go and follow the path! I’ve met many people who work at a job that offers security, opportunity for advancement, or lots of money. Many of them drag themselves to work each day and it ends up being something they dread. They had a burning passion to do something they loved, but for whatever reason, did not follow that dream. My good friend, Mike, works in ‘high tech’. He often asked if he could work with me. From an early age, all he wanted to do was build houses. For a variety of reasons, he has not ended up where he expected, nor intended. He lost direction in life.

Why is it that good intentioned, smart people, with admirable life goals, often are not where they intended, they’re not reaching their goals? Why is it that many people with a clear idea direction in life end up far from their intended destination? Has this happened to you in one area of your life?

First in the series, Destinations then in his book The Principle of the Path, author Andy Stanley talks about how to get from where you are, to where you want to be. We have all lost direction in life in one area for a period of time.

According to Stanley, there are three basic truths about our direction in life.

1             People don’t get lost on purpose.

2             People have no idea where they took a wrong turn in life.

3             The road you are on determines where you end up.

Direction, not intention, determines your destination. Education doesn’t count. Business plans don’t count. Intentions don’t count. We always end up where the road we have chosen to follow takes us.

The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. Proverbs 27:12

This proverb mentions two kinds of people: the prudent and the simple. The prudent are wise. The simple are naive. The prudent see life’s decisions as interconnected. The simple don’t. Instead, the simple see decisions as isolated, unrelated, once-in-a-lifetime decisions that in no way affect their ultimate destination. Wise people know that all decisions are interconnected. Today is related to tomorrow. The wise are willing to draw on the experience of others to help them get to where they want to go.

Stanley says, as wise people, we need to trust others who have found direction in life to get to where we want to be. We need to ask them to show us the way. To give us their directions in life of how they got there. Then we need to listen and learn to apply what it takes to get where we want to be – follow the path!

Attitude    Ask yourself if you are headed in the right direction in life spiritually, with your family, physically, financially, professionally, socially and emotionally?

Action       Watch, listen to, or read this resource and see how it applies to your life.