I am horrible with directions.

I mean, horrible.

If you look up “directionally challenged” in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of me, looking utterly confused, holding a map upside down.

I’m that bad.

It’s a truth I had always known but never really wanted to acknowledge . . . until I started teaching at Mid-Carolina in Prosperity.

There I was, teaching my heart out in the third week of school, when I realized I had a new teacher meeting at the Newberry County Career Center after school. Problem was, I had no clue how to get there. In a bit of a panic, I paused what I’m sure was a stellar lesson, and casually asked my group of juniors if they could help me out.

“Hey, y’all, how do I get to the Career Center?”

“Oh, that’s easy! You just get on 76 and . . .”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! I’m not from here, remember? First, tell me how I get to 76.”

 . . . . . . Crickets . . . . . .

Finally, a sweet girl in the back apologetically whispered, “Ummm, Ms. Smith, 76 is the road in front of the school.”

See what I mean—directionally challenged.

Unfortunately, the years have done nothing to improve my sense of direction.

Just last week I had a deer in the headlights moment leaving my own house. Some friends had come to pick me up to go on our church’s women’s retreat, and as we pulled out of the driveway, Caroline, Margaret’s co-pilot, asked me how to get to I-26.

Seems like a simple question for someone who has lived in the same house for 13 years, right?

WRONG!

Here’s what happened in my brain when I heard Caroline’s question: I-26? Does that go to Spartanburg/Charleston or Florence/Augusta? No, Florence/Augusta is I-20. But can’t 20 take you to 26? Or is that I-77? And where am I going when I go down Two Notch and take that short cut Alex showed me? Is that 20, 26, or 77?

Needless to say, all I could do was stare blankly at Caroline, shrug my shoulders and say, “I honestly have no idea.”

Thankfully, the Bible is one place I can find clear directions, especially when it comes to getting to heaven.

In Luke 14, Thomas sounds a lot like me when he says, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” (5).

Jesus replies, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (6).

That’s it, plain and simple.

There’s no need to ask Waze to re-route us, and Siri doesn’t need to give us one of her alleged “short cuts.” The way to eternal life is a clear path. And like true north on a compass, the direction never changes, no matter what we do.

Jesus paved the way for us. He taught us how to serve, how to love, how to live. If we accept him and do our best to follow in his footsteps, we will get to where we want to go.

So, when we feel lost, there is hope. We can return to Luke 14 over and over again to get us back on track, because the good news is we can never get so turned around that Jesus can’t show us the way home.