If possible, make a U-turn

     Still not even a year into living here in Southern California, my dependence on a GPS is rather worrisome.  I live in the heart of Orange County, yet I'm not familiar with places like Brea, Fullerton, and even any of the beaches!  Sad to say, I'm attached to my Garmin more than it is to the car windshield.

     A good quarter of the time, the GPS may guide me through a route that I know is extremely indirect; there's quite blatantly a faster route with less traffic and less hassle.  However, it just tells you to go like that.  Most of the time (now), I know just enough to navigate through these wrongtold routes.

     Now the other three quarters, the GPS does in fact guide me toward my intended destination in the quickest, timeliest manner possible.  This is why I'm very grateful for one.  Although I am grateful, I am also sad to say that I'm not the most navigationally bright and attentive driver around.

"In point-five miles, make a right turn," the GPS says.

"Okay, sure," I reply.

"In five hundred feet, make a right turn," the GPS confirms.

"Gotcha," I reply.

"Make a right turn now," enunciates the GPS.

"Right on it."

"Recalculating.  In ten point six miles, if possible, make a U-turn."

oops.

     Nothing razzes my berries more than ignoring Garmin's heed.  It's extremely frustrating that a good many times, it seems like he's leading me off cliffs or into exorbitantly priced toll roads, but at the times where he does in fact lead you toward the right path, I ignore the warnings and I ignore the instruction given to me due to my own hubris and past experiences with Garmin's guidance.

     In that sense, I think I can see how difficult it must be to be completely obedient to God's word.

     As a Latter-day Saint missionary, our conduct is dictated and outlined in a little white booklet with 80-some pages telling us what we should do and what we shouldn't do.  Every single rule we have to abide by and like Garmin, it may sometimes lead us to an expensive toll road or a cliff.  However, most all of the mistakes we will make will result from our own follies and ignorance, thinking we're higher than the law.  This applies also to living the gospel principles and the ten commandments.  It's not a lot of rules we are told to abide by and it's not hard to understand them all, but we break the rules out of our own neglect.

     The path toward perfection is right there-- laid in front of you.  All you need to do is make a right turn and you're on your way.  A good chunk of life, though, will be lived through course correction.  We've failed to make that right turn.  We've failed to uphold the law we're supposed to live.  That 10.something-mile waiting time until that U-turn is a very treacherous and unpleasant probationary period, but it teaches us one very important lesson: repentance.  We recognize the mistake and we act upon it, taking it upon ourselves-- putting in the effort-- so that we won't make it again.

     As frustrating a GPS is, it does redirect you correctly on your way to course correction.  Even though it may take you a great many miles more to reach your destination, you'll still get to where you need to be.  Likewise, God Himself does not quit on you, no matter how far away you stray away.  Even through your pretentiousness, you're always led toward the right-- it's only a matter of if you want to follow it or not.

     Now, if you remain stubborn in your attitude for quite some time until you have to make a U-turn in over 30 or more miles, don't despair!  There is repentance.  It is only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we are able to correct the paths successfully and have that motivation to travel toward the correct path again.  His death enabled us all to have that spiritual GPS put into our souls.  If we are repentant in all things we do, we won't have to ever stray too far from the correct path.  Similarly, a church leader, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, quotes 1 John 1:9 and also Isaiah 1:18 to relate to the context that has been given here.  God is a loving God, and I can testify of it.  He hasn't set us up here to fail.  As we have faith in Him, He will be faithful to us.