True North

Stranded in the forest with nothing but a compass in your hand, you look around for a way out, all you find is walking trails that disappear after a while. You feel lost. Rather, you are lost. Then you see a sign saying: STRANDED? NORTH IS THE WAY OUT. You look at your compass and realize you were headed west. What do you do? You turn ninety degrees right. Even though you see other trails, you decide to ignore them because of the instructions on the sign. Besides, you were following one trail before it suddenly disappeared; you don’t want that to happen again. So you stick to your compass. Through thick and thin, your compass guides you. Whether it leads you into thicker bushes or towards a river, you keep moving, because someone who knew this forest put that marker down for a stranded person like you. Sooner or later, you will get out of the woods. This direction is the true north. 

We all have that compass and we all are in the woods one way or another. The question is whether we engage our compass intimately enough to know which direction we are headed. This compass directs us. It informs our decisions. If for whatever reason, we drift east, the compass notifies us and we realign. The compass tells us what is right. It is at the very core of our being. We don’t know how it got there, but it is there. And by right, this does not mean what is right by societal standards, for we know that the society does not in itself know what is right. The society is like waves on the sea, tossed about by governments, by powerful institutions, by powerful men and women who say one thing now and fifty years later turn against themselves. The society lives off the whims of the culture brought about by small factions, who for their gain develop esoteric rules to serve their hidden agendas. The rules in a society are a combination of clashing ideas developed by different sets of people from different places, hence, what is right in one place isn’t in another. It is for this reason that we cannot accept societal standards; they shift with every advancement in human intellect that can maneuver its rules. This human intellect creates a new set of rules that outstrips the old one because it was found to be untrue. This goes on and on because it has chosen to neglect the truth that sits deep within and beyond what it can grasp. It ignores the standards that were originally set and goes about formulating its own rules only to find out that those rules cannot stand the pressure of inevitable changes. These standards are like a house built on sand that crashes in the presence of the wind of change.

This compass resides within every human. It has been there since the beginning of time to guide our walk through the forest. This compass didn’t come to be after we were born. It is not our experiences, for our experiences only judge from what it has seen. Our experience is merely a deduction from what it has been in contact with. Suppose a girl was born in a family where every woman in that family is a housewife and was raised in a community where every housewife is abused by her husband; experience says that the probability of becoming an abused housewife is high. A woman in this position either chooses to not be a wife at all, becomes a housewife regardless because she knows nothing better, or spends her years as a wife overworking herself for the wrong reasons. Our experience cannot be our standard. It cannot be the compass that guides our actions because those actions will always be reactionary. And by reacting to external forces, our actions cannot be right. 

We may disregard our experiences and live instinctively on daily basis, but our instinct can only be right sometimes because it more often than not only caters to our convenience. To determine what is right, it cannot be your instinct because your instinct—which is either fight or flight—will not tell you to save a baby from a burning house. You would rather save yourself because that is what is convenient. But in that moment of decision, you would have a tug at your heartstrings telling you you should save the baby. So there are two thoughts, save the baby or run; between these two thoughts, which one is right? I don’t know, but I can tell you that what makes that decision for you is not one of the two thoughts. It has to be one higher than both. It has to be one judging between the two which one is right given the circumstance. This is our inner compass. (Suppose your instinct tells you to save the baby, people would either praise you for saving the baby or honor you for dying a hero. Why is that? Could it be because it is the right thing to do? How did they know that?) This third feeling making the judgment has to be something greater. It has to be something that recognizes the ideal position which you are to take. It recognizes a set of rules that has been inherently laid down to be followed. 

If something is deciding our actions every time, that has an opinion on every situation, then it must mean that there is a set standard that determines the path to take every time that doesn’t shift goalposts. There is a standard that is set and cannot be changed. From the stone age to modern civilization, this standard has not changed. It is the foundation on which everything is built. Man may create his own rule of law, but this law is only an excerpt of the original that has been twisted to suit the purpose for which it was created. This standard is the standard by which everything else is measured, like the mathematical standard. Whether in Europe or Antarctica, five plus five equals ten, it does not change. An attempt to change this is an attempt at insanity. So we see that there is a primordial navigator, deep within every one of us, at our very core, below our thoughts and feelings that monitors and navigates our position and direction as we move through life. The question is this: how did this navigation system get there and why is it there?

Suppose you are an animator who develops a story and creates the characters needed for that story. You give those characters different abilities and develop parameters against which their actions will be measured—parameters that will guide them towards your plan. You then bring them to life on screen. You had a vision, then you developed components to bring that vision to life. This is the premise on which the earth and the humans in it were created—with an idea, characters, instructions, and parameters—you being the director of your movie as God is the director of His, the world. The difference between your movie and God’s is that your characters cannot deviate from your programming, that is, they don’t have a choice but to act the way you want them to. Whereas for us humans, God gave us the freedom to do as we want. He may have put instructions in our hearts, in His manual, and we have access to Him to get clarity on those instructions, but we always have the choice to obey or not. 

Wouldn’t it have been more reasonable to create humans and control them like puppets so they would do whatever He wanted of them that His plan may be fulfilled? Yes, it would have. But He would have been going against His word of “creating humans in His image and likeness.” By creating humans in His image, He made humans like Himself: free to do as they like. This likeness is the reason why there is an inbuilt navigation system in every human deciding right from wrong per situation. It is why a soldier is celebrated for killing thousands of people at war while the homicidal maniac is sentenced to jail when caught. Our divine nature recognizes justice. If killing was wrong, both the soldier and the serial killer should be on the bad side of history. But killing in itself is not wrong, the context in which it happens decides that. This God-like nature is the same reason why a braveheart would be honored for rescuing a baby from a burning house even when saving himself would be more convenient. Humans inherently recognize right from wrong, but our liberty won’t permit us to hold ourselves to such god-like standards. 

Another reason why He won’t compel humans is that He claims to love us. That would be untrue if humans didn’t have the freedom to live as they wanted, that would be slavery. Slavery is not born out of love, it is born out of control and control is self-centered, love is not. 

Now that we have established how our inner navigation system came to be and the freedom we have to go against it, let us go back to our analogy to find out why. Being the one who gave your characters the abilities and programming to act in certain ways to fulfill the plot of your movie, only you, the writer, knows the intricacies of this plot. Every character in it has a purpose for being there. Though they are all on different paths, they contribute to that plot in one way or another. As the writer and creator of the script, you know the purpose of every character. You know why you put them there. You know what happens to them in the end. Now suppose that at some point in your movie, a character veers off script, what happens to the whole movie? Needless to say, it will be detrimental to the sequence of events intended for the movie. The end envisioned will not be reached. This is what happened in the beginning; Adam and Eve veered off-script. They abused the freedom they had when they heeded to the voice of the serpent. The aphorism that every human has a purpose for which they were created stemmed from this simple logic: we are all in a movie, our roles have been laid out, our paths have been drawn, and there is a purpose for which we have been included in the script, but we are not compelled to follow the script because of our freedom of choice. If you don’t want to follow it as Adam and Eve did, that’s alright, however, there are consequences. 

For anyone interested in following the script, God has given us an inner compass embedded in our nature that is like Him and unfettered access to Him. By taking advantage of that access, you decide to know His heart, to understand His ways and His purpose for you. He leads you through every bump, every valley, every turn because He wrote the script. In those ups and downs lie the details of our everyday life. It is in these details that His instructions truly come into play. These everyday instructions plus our compass are what help us to navigate the issues of life. They help us to decipher right from wrong. They help us choose a course of action even in moments when we do not know what to do. And they ultimately lead us towards our purpose. This way, you’re acting according to the script, but only because you chose to, not because you were forced to. So at the end of it all, you can get, “well done, good and faithful servant.” 

“What of those who do great things without seeking or knowing God,” you may ask. “How did they do it?” Well, as previously mentioned, every character in this script has been programmed in a particular way. Once you act the way you were designed to act—utilizing the hidden gifts that were put there by the designer—you will do great things with those gifts (it is a natural principle). Note, however, that though you can do great things without God, you can’t do God things without God. You can fulfill your potential without fulfilling your purpose, but they are not mutually exclusive. Your potential is everything you can do while your purpose is what you are supposed to do. It is like being specifically asked to wash the dishes, but you cleaned the house and did everything else except wash the dishes. Though you could clean the house, it wasn’t what you were supposed to do. You could have washed the dishes and cleaned the house, then you would have fulfilled your purpose and your potential. Jesus did not fulfill His potential considering He had the potential to do anything He wanted, but He fulfilled His purpose which was to die and resurrect for the benefit of mankind. Also, this role that you play is interwoven in the fabric of an overarching plot. In other words, you play only a small part of a significant whole. This significant whole is the purpose for which this movie was created in the first place. So as we all live our day-to-day lives, it is all intended towards a particular end. This takes us back to our movie.

When a movie is made, the characters are given abilities to take actions that drive the movie plot forward. At the end of the movie, a conclusion is reached. But as earlier asked, what if a character veers off script? Do you get angry at your characters or find a way to restore them to your original intent? Adam and Eve chose their path instead of the one laid out for them. They listened to the wrong voice and fell. God trusted His new creation to be able to handle their encounter with the deceiver. Him giving His new creation the freedom to choose is similar to a parent giving their child liberty. The child may be instructed and warned of the consequences of his actions, but he is given the freedom to act. Balance is required. This is where an overly protective parent may unwittingly restrict the development of a child by shutting off every avenue that may challenge the child’s resolve to adhere to the instructions he has been given. This may hinder the child from knowing if he can withstand the pressure of a sustained challenge independent of the parent. It is only by allowing them to test their limits can they discover their true purpose. How would humans reach their full potential without challenge and danger? If there was only peace, safety, and tranquility, and everything you ever wanted was provided, there would be no growth. God knew this, hence He permitted the serpent in the garden. Unfortunately, they lost at the first hurdle, succumbing to the temptations of their flesh thereby ridding themselves of the greatest ever privilege of the presence of God. His original intent was for them and every human after them to have direct access to Him like those two had in the Garden. But in going their way, they threw away that privilege. A plan was then put in place to restore them and every human to His presence. That plan is Jesus. 

You and I are a part of the divine story of redemption. The movie has been scripted. Everyone has a role to play in the movie. Everyone has a purpose. What is this purpose? The main purpose of every man is to glorify God, then enjoy His presence forever. And the one way to glorify Him is by fulfilling your purpose for being. You bring glory to God as you walk in and fulfill His intended purpose for your life. You glorify God when you choose to intentionally pursue the works God has for your life. One of the greatest things about fulfilling this purpose is that we don’t have to be worried about discovering what it is, but we do that a lot. The way God empowered the Bible characters to do unique things on His behalf in their generation is the same way we have been empowered to rise in our way to serve His purposes in our generation. Whenever we feel too weak to fulfill our purpose, we should know that God already equipped us. He equipped us with an inbuilt compass that functions more accurately the more we engage His presence and ask for instructions. All He needs is our cooperation to begin walking in what He has already prepared for us to do. We don’t need to be special to fulfill our purpose, all we need is to ask Him for help, and He will. He will empower us to complete His work, multiplying our efforts to achieve incredible results. All we need is to follow that compass consistently. 

But this purpose is within a larger framework. This movie has a beginning, therefore must have an end. That end involves the return to the happily ever after as it was in the beginning before the fall and chaos—being in His presence. And the acceptance of Jesus is what gets us back to that place. A place of peace. This is the plot of the movie. Every turn, every jump, every move is intended to get us back to His presence. This is the true north. The intended direction for everyone. The confusion in the world would be reduced to a minimum if only more people realized this. The argument about right and wrong would cease if only they would ask the producer of the movie. He has the standard, and this standard is embedded in all of us which is our navigation system. It is deciding in every situation the right path to take to get back to paradise even though we don’t always follow it. When we are stranded in this forest called life with no way out in sight, God has provided us a compass for navigation and His instructions are available if only we would engage His presence. This is the True North.