At the age of 14 with others in my year group we were given a choice of one of three subjects to study further at school. The options were geography, history and religious studies.
It was not an easy choice to make. Two of those subjects were very interesting indeed. It was going to be so difficult to choose which one to go for out of those two.
The one that I was certainly not going to choose, however, was geography. It just came across as a relatively dull and mundane subject. You could blame the teacher of the class if you wanted, but that would be unfair – whoever that forgettable teacher was. I just thought the whole thing of land masses and types of terrain and all of that was … for someone else and not for me.
Yet here I am writing about a cartographer.
Yes the cartographer – the one responsible for putting the maps together.
The place to be a cartographer requires a remarkable expertise. They put it together because they know the terrain. It is that remarkable expertise that reminds me constantly, that I am not the one who knows where things are when I’m on a journey to the unknown. It is not for me to think I can take matters into my own hands, or make it up as a I go along. If I start from one location and hope to reach another, it will require adherence to what has been painstakingly put together by the cartographer.
The point of being on a journey is going from one location to another. I often have no idea where I’m going as well as little idea how to get there. Reassuring though the voice of a Google Maps app maybe, even they have not got the guidance necessary to make progress let alone how to help when re-routing is required. No. For this journey, something far greater than Google is required. Not just something, but someone. The Cartographer.
It is someone who knows the way. It is someone who knows the truth about the way. It also helps remendously when the route they outline will give life. Not just what to avoid, but the way that is fruitful and beneficial to truly make progress.
I don’t regret giving geography a miss. History would take me back to when the Cartographer presented Himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life. Religious Studies gave me an insight of sorts in why the Cartographer had such an impact in the way people chose to organise their lives. None of these three studies, though, would have been enough for this great journey of life.
That requires the Cartographer.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 