I had one of those experiences recently where I was listening to a GPS give me directions and something didn’t seem right. And it wasn’t.
I was being told to U-Turn when I knew I was only a couple blocks away from my destination that was programmed in. I ignored the GPS and within 60 seconds I was at my destination.GPS (see definition of Global Positioning System here) is a an authoritative voice and tool for us frequently as we try to navigate on whatever journey we are on. It’s used by pretty much everyone now, not just marine vessels or the military or the space program.
But sometimes it’s wrong.We’ve all seen comedic illustrations of people trusting their GPS to the point where they drive into a lake (Michael Scott in The Office) or we have our own examples of getting lost because of a blind faith in what the GPS lady is telling us.
One of the great developmental challenges for anyone is to be able to assess what authoritative voices are saying and be able to discern for one’s self if there is something “off” or errant about what is being said. I used the word “discern” for a reason, because there are no shortage of people out there who love reacting to things. People can’t want to tear apart the President’s State of the Union, they can’t wait to call certain teaching apostate or heretical, and they can’t wait to throw everyone under the bus to preserve their sense of being right. These people are not discerning. They are reactive. And that means they are immature. Rebelling against authority just because it’s authority is not mature or discerning or cutting edge….it’s caveman-esque.
The developmental challenge is to be able to remain appropriately submitted to the authority (parent, teacher, politician, leader, pastor, businessman, facebook friends, and yes, even GPS…), while not losing your self. In systems language this is fusion. Fusion leads you to drive your car into a lake because you can’t preserve your own identity apart from the GPS ladies’ voice. Fusion leads you to become a “groupie” of whatever hot shot leader, blogger, or pastor out there as your thoughts no longer are your thoughts, but your brain is plagiarizing others in its expression of itself. Your identity is no longer your own. It’s been fused with someone else’.
The GPS is not always right.All the voices you have in your life are not always right, no matter how much authority you give them. (I’m not including sacred texts here in this discussion, but I will include the people that teach them!)
Are you enough of your own person to be able to discern when they are wrong? Are you enough of a person on your own to be able to know when you are being led astray and can you make choices to get back on track to get you where you want to or need to go? Do you blindly follow because you are afraid to think for yourself? What are you afraid of?
Where do you find it hardest, using the metaphor, to “turn the GPS off” and choose to go a different direction?
