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Jeff Adams

Need Directions?

September 8, 2010

Why is that men have such a hard time asking for directions? No, I don’t have the answer. I’m a man. OK, so now I’ve set myself up for all sorts of sick jokes in the comments section. Such is life!

Not only is it stupid to not want to ask directions, when I finally realize that I am hopelessly lost and have no chance to find my way, that’s when I give in and am ready to ask for directions. So, I ask my wife Cheryl to ask someone for directions. What a coward, right? I swear I’m getting better, though, as I mature (get older).

If I knew why men have so much trouble asking for directions, maybe I could better understand why so many people have trouble asking for spiritual direction when the stakes are infinitely and eternally higher. This is not a criticism, by the way. Just like I don’t ask for directions when driving or trying to find something in a store, it is also hard for me to ask people for help in my spiritual walk. I guess I want to give the illusion that I’m not lost, struggling or don’t have all the answers. I’m trusting God to do better in this area, too, and learning to say the following little phrase, “I need help ____.”

So, I wrote this book a few years ago called Directions. It’s designed to help people find their way along their spiritual journey, even those like me who have trouble admitting they don’t exactly know where they are going. Whether you are just beginning your faith journey or have been on the road a long time, I think there is something here to help you keep on target.

I flew to Miami yesterday where I am speaking in a bi-lingual church and training them in how to use the Directions book. I did this in English last night and will do it again tonight in Spanish. We have done disciple-making training for years and years ago using a series of 16 little booklets as a guide to help people point others in the right direction.

A few years ago I had the burden to provide a tool that was more user-friendly, more flexible, more culturally relevant and much more personally applicable and relational. The result was Directions.

I am ever amazed at the feedback I am getting from many places. Hardly a week goes by without hearing from someone somewhere who has found his or her way along life’s path through Directions. It has been or is being translated into several languages in addition to English and Spanish, including German, Dutch, Arabic, Farsi, Sorani, Behedini, Bengali, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese and others.  In fact, as I am sitting here I just got an email from a pastor in another state that is going to start using Directions as the basic disciple making tool in his church starting in January.

How about you? Know where you are? Know where you are going? Need Directions?

  • dan danley

    this is not an answer to why? but just a thought on spiritual questions they dont know the language while i was in germany working with another missionary i was asked to meet a group that had come to romania i had to go through budipest hungery little did i know a big truck had blocked a sign for my turn i was on a big four lane bulavard that went around the city. so my wife was getting upset about it . i didnt speak hungarian and niether did she but God took care of us sinse the road did a circle around the city and saw the sign then got to romania in the city i was suppose to meet the other missionary he wasnt there and went through the same thing this time i found somebody at an hotel that spoke english and pointed me to the address several blocks away where every body was at.

  • christine

    My short answer for anyone not asking directions is one word – pride. Directions are not just related to north, south, east, or west.

    My long answer is that we (humans/Christians) do not develop a dependence on God for everything, as we should; we try to take care of things ourselves. The problem with that is we don’t know the whole story. I know individuals who pray about where to go to dinner. Does God care? of course he does. He wants to be a part of our everyday decisions – not just the “big ones.” God will direct us where he needs us to go – we just need to ask.

    Seeing God’s direction in the little things in life was overwhelmingly displayed to me recently. As I walked out of the library, a woman asked me for a ride to her home in the downtown area of Lee’s Summit. I initially said no, but then turned around and said yes. It was only 1.5 miles – not out of my way, not an inconvenience.

    In talking to the woman, I found out that her 16 year old son committed suicide about 4 years ago. As many who read these comments may know, my 16 1/2 year old son attempted suicide 5 years ago. Coincidence? I think not.

    I failed to get the woman’s name, but dropped off my business card at the address a couple of days later. There was a name on the mailbox, and I used that name to track her down in the obituaries of the KC Star website. I then sent her a “thinking about you” card. I received a reply to my card yesterday – she would like me to pick her up for church this Sunday!

    All because I gave pause to a request for a ride.

    Does God care about your dinner plans – I think so. He cared enough about this woman to arrange my life to be at the library to give her a ride home, which may lead to her salvation. At the very least, it gave HER pause to consider the differences in how we handled similar situations and to look into it more.

    I’ll keep you posted.

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