The only scientifically verifiable difference between men and women is that while traveling through new territory, men will always refuse to look at a map or stop and ask for directions.

My own life has born that out.

Our vacations are often punctuated with intriguing discussions centered around my wife’s attempt to get us where we are, theoretically, heading and my own strange reluctance to admit that we are desperately lost. My wife would suggest to anyone who would ask that her husband is, in the parlance of today, directionally challenged.

Once, while visiting in France, I passed the same guy...he was sitting outside his little house...four times without ever admitting to anyone that I was lost.

The last time by, he waved like we were old friends.

There is a theological dimension to all of this.

Someone once said that our church’s doctrines and creeds are like roadmaps. We don’t have to follow them to find God but it does make the whole process a lot easier.

As in my driving, I sometimes find that a difficult piece of advice to follow.

I know how true that is for many others, as well.

We struggle with ancient symbols and archaic language. We stumble over implications that this is what we must believe, or else.

Still, in our wiser moments, we know that the faith of our mothers and fathers has been passed down to us not as a curse but as a blessing. Our challenge, as pilgrims on our journey, is to accept the gift of these maps, using what is helpful and setting aside for the time being what is not.