G-d and the GPS

Whenever I leave my house, I program my GPS. I am terrible when it comes to directions. If I need to meet someone in a certain place, I tell them to give me the address, and I will just punch it into the GPS. It is easier than trying to puzzle out directions. Do I go right or left here? I just wait for the persistent yet sometimes annoying voice of my GPS to announce, “In 400 yards, turn right. Then, go straight.”

My father is good with directions. Somehow he instinctively knows where he is and how to get to another destination from there. I thank the person who created the GPS, even though it gives me an excuse to not have to think while I’m driving. I don’t multi-task very well.

The thing about my GPS is it takes a few minutes to find my location. When I leave my house, I have to have some general idea of where I am going, and then the GPS will pick me up along the way. If I don’t even know if I need to go right or left, then I might as well stop on the side of the road until the GPS finds a signal. Does that make the GPS useless to me? No, because even if it doesn’t help me at first, it eventually finds me and shows me the way.

I used to say to G-d, “Tell me where to go from here. Just point me in the direction you want me to go, and I will go there. That is all I am asking of you. That is not so hard, right?” Sometimes I get stuck and I need direction. Sometimes I feel like I am at a crossroads in life. There is a fork in the road and I don’t know whether to go right or left. I sit in the road and wait for some bright neon sign saying, “This way to redemption!” But for some reason it never comes.

It started me thinking. Maybe G-d wants me to put in some effort. We are brought down to this earth for a reason, and we all have a purpose here. I wish I was given a guidebook along with my life, maybe a little preview, and a peek at what is to come next. It would be so reassuring to know that tomorrow everything will be okay, that in five years from now I will be doing this or that, and that it doesn’t matter where I am now. So many times I have asked G-d, so what now? And I have drawn a blank.

There is a well-known saying, “Open up a hole the size of a needle, and G-d will open a hole like the doors of a wedding hall.” (Pischu li pesach shel machat v'ani eftach lachem pischo shel ulam.) That is all that He asks of us. Just try. Do a little bit. Leave your house and pick a destination. Don’t rely on the GPS to get you there. Don’t rely solely on G-d to give you direction and figure out your life. He is relying on us. G-d is waiting for us to make that first move, even if we just move our big toe. G-d wants to see that we are putting in the effort and that we are not waiting around for someone else to do the work, for someone else to live our lives.

And only then will He pick us up. Only then will He light the way for us, push away all obstacles, and escort us Himself to the finish line.

I used to think that maybe G-d wants me to fail. He leaves me on my own, right? Maybe He is just watching and waiting for me to stumble.

But He doesn’t want us to fail. He just wants us to try.

Like the size of a needle hole. You have to make the first move. Like lifting weights, it might seem very hard at first. But once you lift that heavy burden, G-d will pick it up and make it lighter.

I never leave my house without my GPS. And I never leave my house without a prayer to G-d first. I don’t ask Him to show me the way anymore. Now, I ask Him to give me the strength, wisdom and clarity to find the way.

I still have not seen that neon sign yet, but somehow I know G-d is listening.