True North

By Susan Leonard

True North is a fixed point on a globe. Magnetic North is the direction that a compass needle points to as it aligns with the Earth’s magnetic field. What is interesting is that the magnetic north pole shifts and changes over time in response to changes in the Earth’s magnetic core.

What path are you on? Both lead in the same general direction. Both can feel right at times. Magnetic North is real – it is not an imaginary path. It is easy to set your life compass toward Magnetic North. In fact, it is actually the path we are taught from a very young age to move forward on. It is the “human path.” It feels good to pursue because there is celebration in doing it well. We grow up, we leave our parents, we get a job, we find love, we build success, we find security and we even find happiness. Magnetic North has a fatal flaw though. It requires constant, and often exhausting, course correction to keep going in the perceived and worldly-defined right direction.

True North, the road where our minds and hearts are set on Jesus, seems like a good idea, but it is often counter to our humanness. We don’t get to keep making adjustments that make us feel good in an earthly way. The road feels to us unsure because our human eyes can’t perceive what is around the next corner, which then causes anxiety and fear in us. So often we end up back on Magnetic North, taking control and adjusting back to our wants and desires.  But if we could take a bird’s eye view of the True North road we would realize it is straight, laid out perfectly for us. For God knew us before we were born, all that is in between, to the exact date and time that we will leave this earth to join Him. (Psalm 139)

True North is the easier road but at the same time it is the hardest road. It takes obedience to stay on it. It takes an especially keen ear and sharp attention. It asks for surrender remembering that God already knows the plan. In Isaiah 41:9-10, long before the birth of Christ and all he has yet to tell humankind, God puts his loving hand on our shoulder and looks us in our hearts and tells us, “I took you from the end of the earth, from the farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.’”

True North requires much of us. For we must sometimes give up our solid, well-thought-out plans, we must stop moving forward with our confident and sometimes indignant steps, stop working so hard to shore ourselves up, shaking things off and berating ourselves for not working hard enough and striving for the things the world tells us we must accomplish. Instead we need to fall to our knees, turn and put out our hand, smile with relief and ask Jesus to help us up. For he has come to join you on the road, it is the road he walked during his ministry on this earth to show us the way. He is the road.