I am reading this book, ‘AQUAChurch 2.0’, and the author talks about our tendency to search for the ‘saviour map’ or recipe for successful ministry or life. However, he reminds us that ‘Jesus gave us and signposts, but not maps’. We can’t depend totally on maps because they are usually: (1) not full representations of reality, (2) not current, (3) directed by the focus of the map-makers, and (4) won’t get you to your destination. It is the same for our own lives. Each person needs to chart his/her own journey as he/she sails through the sea of time. “You can’t reduce God’s way of working with any biblical figure to a cute formula or a colourful map.’ Each person’s map of the world is peculiar and the final pieces come in only when we have reached the other shore.
Today we can read St. Paul’s map because he has finished his journey, not because he had it at the beginning. He sailed through life under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:6-10). God did not give him a map nor instructed him to search for a ‘saviour map’, but to heed the signposts erected along his paths (life and ministry). We, too, are to be sensitive to the signboards God places along our paths that direct our purposes in life. The same goes for the Children’s Church, may we as one people seek out these signboards and follow its directions, instead of imitating and replicating the successful churches (heroes) – their journey is not ours.