There are a lot of stories of about people over-relying on, or misusing, the GPS units in their vehicles.

In England a big rainfall made the police close a road. The river went over the banks, making it impassable. But every day for two weeks at least one car drove past the warning sign and right into the river that was overflowing the road.

Why? ‘Because my GPS said to go this way.’

Another is a woman from Belgium who set out to pick up a friend in Brussels. It was a 90-mile trip. But her GPS was set incorrectly. She missed the turn and kept going… for 900 miles and ended up in Croatia! Later she said that she had been “absent-minded.”

If the coordinates are wrong, the route is wrong, and we’ll never arrive at the right destination.

I say this on November 11th—Remembrance Day, or Veteran’s Day—because Jesus is our coordinate, route, and destination for world peace. 

If Jesus is not plugged in to the GPS of our hearts and minds, we will simply never arrive.

I say this in a spirit of humility and with the pulse of Scripture. Colossians 1:19-20 says that through Jesus, God was reconciling “to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

ALL things, including peoples and nations.

But he also works this peace between people through love. He is the one who says we should “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:31) and “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Even while hanging on the cross he said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Don’t be shy about who Jesus is or what he has done. Following him, talking about him, and loving others in his name, brings more peace into a world which needs it desperately.

If Jesus is not plugged in to the GPS of our hearts and minds, we will simply never arrive.

By Matthew Ruttan

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.