When you are driving and realize you are hopelessly lost, the worst thing you can do is press harder on the gas pedal. Yet, that is exactly what human pride tells us to do. To find your way back, you have to do something uncomfortable: you have to pull over, admit you don’t know where you are, and look at the map. In our active addiction, we spent years driving at top speed in the wrong direction. We refused to look at the map because we were terrified of how far off course we had drifted, and we didn’t want anyone else to see that we were lost.
Recovery demands that we finally pull over. We are invited to examine our ways and test them. This isn’t about beating ourselves up or wallowing in a pit of guilt; it is simply about spiritual navigation. We look honestly at our motives, our resentments, our financial choices, and our fears to see exactly where we took a wrong turn. We cannot correct a trajectory we refuse to acknowledge.
The beauty of this daily examination is the destination it leads to: “let us return to the Lord.” We don’t examine our flaws to stay stuck in them, and God doesn’t ask us to look at our mistakes just to shame us. We examine them so we can find our way home. God isn’t standing at the end of the road with a stick, waiting to punish you for being late or for taking a detour; He is waiting on the porch with open arms to welcome you back. Honest review is the road that leads us out of the wilderness and back into His peace.
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