An Inconvenient Map App   

The following is from an article I once found on Forbes.com:

Embarrassing defects in Apple‘s new Maps app may be inconvenient for some, but for others in Australia they could be deadly.

Police in the city of Mildura, Victoria are warning motorists to be careful when using the iOS 6 service in the area, because the app incorrectly lists Mildura as being in the middle of Murray Sunset National Park.  The flaw has consequently lead several motorists to become stranded in the Australian Outback.

Sunset National Park is not a typical park with barbecue cookouts and babbling brooks, but more than 3,000 square miles of Australian bush that contains poisonous snakes and insects, has very little water or mobile reception, and has recently seen temperatures of 115 degrees Fahrenheit.

It’s also about 43 miles away from the real Mildura.  Google Maps shows Mildura as being to the northwest of the park.

This is a “potentially life-threatening issue,” Victoria Police say.  Officers have found some motorists were stranded for as long as 24 hours with no food or water, and were forced to walk for long distances through “dangerous terrain” with virtually no shade to get phone reception.

Inspector Simon Clemmence of Victoria Police says six vehicles have so far contacted the police asking for help because the app sent them off course, and officers are worried because Australia is now entering its summer season. Last week temperatures in the park reached 112 degrees Fahrenheit.

Among the stranded was one man who drove so far into the park he was forced to walk for 24 hours to get into mobile phone range.  Fortunately temperatures were not at their highs on that day, but had they been “there’s a fair chance he may not have made it,” says Clemmence.

What an appropriate illustration for depicting the error of following the world’s directions!  Unfortunately, those who follow the world’s directions will end up in a much hotter place than Mildura, Australia (see Mark 9:43-48).

Jesus warned, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

Everyone needs directions to access the way that leads to life.  Jeremiah said, “O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). Twice in Proverbs, we find this warning: “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (14:12; 16:25).

But God loves us so much that He provided the way that leads to life.  That way is through Jesus Christ, God’s Son and our Savior (John 14:6).  Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for our sins and to open a “new and living way” to heaven through His redeeming blood (Hebrews 10:19-21).

Bob Williams