Message summary: Being careful and staying focused will enable you to keep your spiritual orientation today.

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"Lead me to the rock that is higher than I" (Psalm 61:2). "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight" (Isaiah 5:21).

This past Monday I transported the Lapp family to a mountain cabin in Potter County in northern PA. It was pitch dark when we arrived and we had trouble finding the place. The cabin we were looking for was up a long, winding, and very steep gravel road cut into the mountain with cliffs off the sides and no guardrails.

By the time we finally got up the long, winding road it was pitch black and we were aware that the area was known for black bear habitation! Jesse told me he took a walk and it was dark you couldn't see you hand in front of your face. I was completely discombobulated and really had no sense of direction. What I thought was north was actually south.

After I finally dropped them off at their cabin and unloaded the van I still needed to drive back down the mountain to my place of lodging. I am sure thankful the headlights and brakes worked!

I was experiencing a condition known as spatial disorientation which is defined as the inability  to correctly determine position in space. I first heard the term when we lived in New England.

John F. Kennedy Jr. and two passengers died in a plane accident in 1999. His plane crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard. Most aviation experts feel that Kennedy likely experienced "spatial disorientation". In flight a pilot can become so confused in haze or darkness without landmarks that he has absolutely no sense of direction. This is very serious for pilots who do not have an instrument rating. A pilot may feel he is going straight ahead when in fact he is diving down!

When winding through the mountains with many turns it's easy to get spatially disoriented (losing your sense of direction).

But there's a much more serious form of disorientation, which affects all of mankind in the spiritual realm. Rather than spatial disorientation let us call it "spiritual disorientation". Amazingly though, most are not even aware of its effect or even that they are disoriented. Worse yet they give little consideration to the eventual consequences of this disorientation. What a serious "Woe" is expressed in our daily text. "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight".

Other Scripture verses describe this disorientation: "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4). "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death" (Proverbs 16:25).

Circumstances in our world seem to be ever more confusing so the earnest believer must be vigilant in keeping the proper spiritual orientation. As believers we must cry out daily with the Psalmist, "Lead me to the rock that is higher than I" (Psalm 61:2). We trust in the One of whom it is written, "He will be the sure foundation for your times" (Isaiah 33:6). And "We have this hope [in Christ] as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Hebrews 6:19).

Being careful and staying focused will enable you to keep your spiritual orientation today.

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13.

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber