Do you have a Satellite Navigation System? And if you do, do you talk back to yours, or is it just me? Do you argue with yours, or is it just me? Do you always obey yours?

My satnav has live traffic updates and about a week ago as I was travelling to a meeting it suggested that I should divert around a problem. I couldn’t see why that was necessary especially as I was in a moving flow of traffic, so I ignored it. Then I arrived at a section of road that was flooded and, while passable, required gentle navigation and tested the waterproofness of my car floor (it passed). Then it said that I should divert around another problem ahead. But I could see that stretch of road and it was empty. No flood. No cars. No problem. So I told my satnav not to be such a worrier and carried on without an issue.

On Sunday I was travelling to a church and the satnav was taking me on a lovely country road when it told me to turn right. I was singing along to a song so didn’t think about the instruction – I blindly followed it and indicated right. It was only as I turned right that I questioned what the satnav was doing as I drove down what looked like a farm track. It did come out onto another main road but I wondered whether the satnav would have been better keeping me on the main roads.

Yesterday I was heading to another meeting when the satnav started telling me to leave the dual carriageway I was on and follow a route along more minor roads. I was unconvinced, especially after the experience last week, but wondered whether or not to listen to the satnav anyway especially as it was telling me that if I followed the diversion I would be 15 minutes late for my meeting. So I ignored it and carried on along the dual carriageway.

Then the satnav offered another alternative route if I came off at the next junction. I admired its persistence and began to wonder whether I should listen to it. Just at that point my car radio was interrupted by a local traffic report that told me that the dual carriageway I was on was blocked ahead and that the queues went back for miles.

I decided to listen to my satnav.

I followed an interesting ‘cross country’ route which I imagine was probably the main route before the dual carriageway was constructed. The satnav told me where and when to turn and I was completely at its mercy. And wonderfully I arrived at my destination less than 10 minutes late (I didn’t speed, but the satnav had overestimated the delay).

At certain points in the journey the minor road I was on went parallel to the dual carriageway and I could see the massive tailback with stationary traffic (as opposed to stationery traffic which is made of paper). I tried not to feel smug, but enjoyed the experience of being in moving traffic.

Whose opinion do you trust? Whose voice do you listen to? What are the criteria by which you judge whether or not someone is trustworthy: previous experience; corroboration from other sources; the ‘authority’ of the speaker?

Do you apply those same criteria to questions of faith or how you read the Bible?

Be blessed, be a blessing