Here is a ridiculous story that teaches us a lesson we would all do well to remember: A man from Los Angeles is invited to fly to Chicago to call on an important business contact. The man in Chicago mails him a street map, as he will be renting a car at the airport and traveling into downtown Chicago to make the call.

Unfortunately, the map company made a mistake and some maps of the City of Detroit were mistakenly labeled City of Chicago. It was one of these maps that the man in Los Angeles received.

The traveler picks up his rented car and proceeds to travel toward the city with his map on the seat beside him. As he nears the heart of downtown, he pulls over to consult the map. He is totally confused and cannot tell where he is or where he is supposed to go. Since he is parked near an outside pay telephone, he quickly dials the man he is trying to find and informs him that he is lost and cannot find his way.

The man in Chicago proceeds to give him a lecture on self-determination, on persistence, and the attitude of never giving up. The bewildered man gets back into his rented car and begins to drive twice as fast and proceeds to get lost twice as fast.

Finally, in desperation, he makes another phone call. He is a little agitated as he speaks once again to his Chicago contact. This time he gets a lecture on having a negative attitude. He is asked what he can see from his vantage point at the phone booth. He describes the four corners explaining that there is a bank on one corner, two gas stations on opposite corners and a book store on the other. He is told to go into the book store and buy a book on positive mental attitude and see if that won’t change his negative and frustrated feelings. He is more than a little upset, but he proceeds to read some of the power-of-positive-thinking from the book that he was told to buy.

Now he is so charged up, he jumps in the car and takes off at break-neck speed. He is still lost but now he is so full of positive thinking that he doesn’t even care.

Obviously the lesson we learn from this silly story is that all the positive thinking in the world will not help if we do not have the right road map.

Think how many people go through life reading the wrong road map or ignoring the only road map that will lead them to a place in the kingdom of God. They may be filled with positive thoughts but they are still lost. The faster they go, the further they get from the goal of the kingdom.

It is good to have a positive mental attitude but it must be coupled with a proper understanding of where we are going and how to get there.

Solomon tells us that there is ”a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

Let’s begin our journey by consulting the correct road map, the Bible, and then let us follow it step by step as we journey on the path of life to the kingdom.

David says, ”Preserve me, 0 God: for in thee do I put my trust... Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”