I use a GPS device to guide to homes the first time I visit them as a Hospice Chaplain.  Most of the times the device is a convenience and gets me to where I am going with ease.  However there are those times when the device apparently does not have the information it needs and says I have arrived when I can tell with my eyes I am not where I want to be.

When the device gives me this message I get frustrated and then try to determine what I have to do to arrive where I am headed.  It is easy when the GPS is simply 50 feet off and I can see where I am supposed to be.  There was one time when I was in the rural Barton area, when the device told me to turn right onto a road that did not exist.  It took determination that time to turn around and go back until the first time I could turn right.  Then I re-engaged the GPS and it directed me to the house I was headed to.  Apparently Route 36 and this road whose name I don’t know were close enough together that the GPS thought they were the same road.

The point of this post is to remind us any time we are given information we must analyze if it is reliable or not.  We can use whatever tools we have at our disposal to make this choice.  Most of the time I find common sense is the best tool to use in these situations.