A Song to Set the Heart Right

Before the story, I want to share a song that captures the spirit behind it. One of my favorite music groups (Selah) performs a beautiful mash-up  "Part the Waters / I Need Thee Every Hour" This has become my favorite version of the hymn and it expresses the simple truth that before we can follow any direction, we must first learn to depend on the Lord.... trusting His presence and guidance every hour

The Compass and the Travelers

A group of travelers crossed a wide desert together. Long ago, the King had given their ancestors a compass and a map, promising that anyone who followed them carefully would reach a fertile valley. The King had declared: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from My mouth.”

For generations, the travelers carried these treasures with them.

Sometimes a guide would arise among them, someone entrusted to read the map clearly and explain how the compass worked. A few such guides were faithful: they pointed only to the King's words and helped others hear them truly. Others spoke too boldly, claiming directions the King never gave. Some grew too cautious, hiding parts of the map. A handful misunderstood or even twisted what they read.

Over time, the travelers began arguing fiercely.

Some cried, “Follow our guide, he speaks for the King!” Others shouted, “No, our guide is the true one, yours leads astray!” Still others declared, “Reject all guides! They are all deceivers or fools!”

Soon the travelers splintered into small bands, each trudging in slightly different directions across the burning sand, footprints diverging like fractured arguments.

One evening, an old woman gathered them around a flickering fire. She held up the compass, it's needle steady despite the wind.

“You fight over guides” she spoke quietly, “while forgetting the compass and the Kings every word”

The travelers protested loudly.

“But the guides help us understand!” one insisted, voice trembling with loyalty.

“Some guides are wrong, they've led friends to ruin!” another cried bitterly, eyes flashing with old pain.

“How do we know who to trust anymore?” a third demanded

The old woman nodded, patient as stone.

“Guides can help you read the map,” she answered, “especially those who faithfully deliver only what the King has spoken. But even the best guide is not the compass. The compass is still the compass, even when a guide is mistaken or proud. And the map is still the map, even when travelers argue over its lines”

She placed the compass gently on the ground between them, where its needle gleamed in the firelight.

“If you walk by the guide alone, without testing against the compass, you may follow a person deep into the desert. If you reject every guide, you may wander lost, never learning to read the King's words for yourselves. But..... if you learn to use the compass and heed every word the King has given, you can walk together again, guided by His unchanging direction.”

The wind swept across the dunes, softly erasing the tangled footprints of their old arguments.

One by one, the travelers knelt to look at the compass. They studied the map anew, seeking the King's words directly through the steady needle, through prayerful hearts, through the Holy Spirit that confirms truth.

And for the first time in many days, they all agreed which direction was north.

Together, they rose and resumed the journey, not following any single guide above the rest, but walking side by side, each accountable to the King's voice, every word sustaining them toward the promised valley.

Inspired by reflections on living by every word from God