‘Nav-ing’ Life

By Mrs Hannah Cole (Outdoor Education)

In more than one casual conversation this week I found myself responding to the old "how are you?" question by saying, "ah yeah, getting there".  After catching myself spouting this phrase a few times I had a laugh with my local grocer about where ‘there’ actually is.  I assured her that if I could figure out the destination, I’d be sure to let her know.

This idea of navigation is the nexus of a few things for me at the moment. I’m actually doing an Alpha Course for the first time - mainly for curiosity but also because I’ve got some big questions I’d love to explore.

I’m pretty wild about direction in the physical world. I can’t help but have my bearings; knowing where North is, where I am relative to my home or some other reference point, what the fastest route somewhere is, the most direct route, and then how a mode of transport - foot, bike, train, car - changes things.  Give me a compass, map and some trackless bushland and I’ll be entertained for way too long.  In fact, even just give me Google Maps and my Saturday arvo will gleefully disappear.

Soon I’m taking my students out to do some navigation in Lysterfield Park.  This kind of concrete navigation and decision making is so much more manageable than navigating other life choices - well, for me anyway!  Because I align most closely with an ‘Enneagram One’ (a personality type based on a profiling system) I’m intent on being right and making the perfect decision all the time.  Perhaps this is why it’s hard?   But actually the trouble of direction and decision is common to most of us.

Where are we going? - as individuals, families, communities and nations.  Does our large scale sense of direction actually filter down to our smaller decisions?  Do we allow time to ask big questions and then more time to journey for the answers?  Forgive me, just a bit of light existentialism!

I’m mostly full of questions at the moment but I feel assured that Jesus holds them and will walk through it with me.  Having Him with me is enough.