Course Correction

Dumb and Dumber went deer hunting one day.  Tripping over a branch, Dumb dropped his gun and it discharged hitting a deer by accident.  It was a large buck with a big rack that had sensed these two were no real threat - bad luck for him.  Nonetheless, they had their deer and started dragging it by its antlers out of the woods.

They had pulled for hours and were having a terrible time as the antlers kept getting caught on the underbrush.  An experienced hunter came by and told them they were dragging the deer the wrong way.  He told them to drag it the other direction so the antlers would not catch on the underbrush, instead the brush would part around them.

They accepted the hunter's correction and began pulling it the other way and sure enough, by dragging it by the back legs instead of the antlers, they found they had smooth sailing.  Dumb said, "This is so much easier than the other way."  Dumber said, "It sure is but we're getting further and further away from our pickup truck going this way."

Dumb jokes aside, we all need course corrections at times.  We need someone to point out the error of our way and help us correct our trajectory.  In those times when we are heading in a wrong or dangerous direction, to continue unchallenged would bring loss or even death.  A course correction is needed but not always welcomed.

We tend to get entrenched in our choices and insistent on our paths so that we resist attempts to correct our course of action or path of life.  We have an investment in our choices, our pride is challenged as our course is questioned, we assume we know best or we simply want to keep going and doing what we've chosen.

Despite our resistance, a loving parent, a good friend or a faithful spouse will go to great lengths to provide a course correction.  Out of love, others will act against our cries of foul or rejection of their intent to help.  Being a loving Father and our ultimate BFF, God will point out and apply pressure to bring about a course correction in our lives: "God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness" (Heb 12:10).

Discipline, meant to bring about a course correction, is rarely welcome.  It is uninvited and generally pain producing as it applies pressure to cause us to yield.  But discipline from the Lord is a blessing if we embrace it: "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it" (Heb 12:11).

The simple fact is that, from time to time, we all need course corrections.  And, God, who loves us as no other, will allow the pressure of pain to get our attention.  In those times, instead of losing heart or digging in our heels, let us "seek first the kingdom of God [so that] all [that is good for us] will be [given by the Lord]" (Matt 6:33).  Jus' Say'n.