Australian Thoughts at the Weekend. 28th and 29th June, 2008

This will be the last Australian Thoughts at the Weekend until the 2^nd August. Also there will be no OzThoughts until the 28^th July. As many know my wife Denice and I are travelling to London so we can attend a “family gathering” of Denice’s family (Tearle) at the village of Stanbridge near Luton. We will have about 2 weeks in London and also spend about 4 days each in Paris, Rome and Hong Kong on the way home.

I love going to new places, exploring and tasking in the history and sights and meeting the local people. My only disappointment is that I will not have time to travel in the UK and visit fiends I have made on the internet over the last eight years.

The only overseas trips we have done before is twice to New Zealand, so this is all a great adventure for us. My brother-in-law is hiring a car and he asked me how do I go as a navigator. I assured hi that I could read a map and that all would be okay. 

Some time ago I wrote about how I learnt to read a road map, a skill which has  been most useful for both business and pleasure.

 Lost and Found

Almost fifty years later I still remember the experience of most of my school holidays which were spent riding along side my father in his truck. Dad had his own business and he delivered parcels and other small items to various places around the city of Brisbane. I enjoyed the mornings when we would go from place to place picking up the morning’s deliveries. At each place there was a brief chat with the people there and a quick look around the various places. We would repeat it all again each afternoon.

The variety of goods was huge. It was a very diverse range of goods that ended up in the back of the truck. There were parts for cars, trucks and machinery. There were items made of various plastics, from kitchen sinks to plastic wallets and folders. There would be framed pictures and empty frames and various cartons of food products and other well wrapped items. The variety over the years included popcorn, furniture, tobacco curing equipment, chainsaws, petrol and diesel engines. When Perspex was popular in the late 1950s we had every perspex item imaginable from sunvisors for cars to shelving and toilet seats.

The places we went to were just as varied. We delivered to rail stations and rail sheds, the airport and many truck depots and bus terminals. Shops, factories and houses were also on the list. As we went from place to place there were people and many other interesting things to be seen. I really enjoyed learning about the city and its life.

One of the lessons I have never forgotten was map reading. There must have been times when dad could tell I was not too excited about what was happening and he could tell I was getting bored. It was then I learnt something I have never forgotten. It could not have been very long after I began to read that dad introduced me to the “Refidex”. I soon learnt as every Brisbanite knows that a Refidex is the book of maps of the city. It is the street directory. In other places in Australia it is the UBD or Gregory’s or Melway but in Brisbane it is the Refidex. Even when UBD (Universal Business Directory’s) bought out Refidex, they continued to put Refidex on the front cover.  Actually any street directory to a Brisbanite is a “refidex”.

Dad showed me to read it in a practical way. He would tell me the name of the next street we were going to and by using the index I would find the page and cross reference and then locate the street we wanted. The ritual was then that I would tell dad the name of the two streets before it on the same side of the road. I, of course, would tell him whether it was on the right or left side. Dad would then tell me to watch for the streets I had told him and let him know when we were passing them and then to get ready to turn.

Map reading has been a very useful skill. Since about 1966 all my work has involved a lot of driving, not only in the city I grew up in but in many other cities and towns. It enabled me to find my way quickly to strange places, as long as I had the Refidex or other street directory in the car.

However, my map reading skills may be becoming obsolete. I rode in a car recently that had an electronic system that after the destination was set told you street by street and turn by turn how to get there. On one occasion, when the driver took a different route to the instruction, he was told when he was able to do a U turn. When he ignored this the voice then readjusted and began to give correct instructions from where the car now was.   I later heard an advertisement on the radio that these fixed or hand held systems can be purchased for under $500 Australian. Maybe the next Refidex I buy will be the last as I imagine these systems will become standard in cars soon.

If I think there has been change in my life time, there is a much bigger change if I look back through the pages of the Bible. I see Abraham being told where to go. Moses is told to lead God’s people from Egypt to the Promised Land and God leads them with a cloud by day and a sky fire at night. To others the place where God wanted them was much more apparent.

Much later, David could reflect on God being his Shepherd. We can gather from the Biblical story of David’s life that there was a little more to it than the familiar:

  The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
²   He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
³   He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
⁴   Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. (Psalm 23 King James Version).

David was not always a saint. If God was his Shepherd, then there was not only a need for the gentle comforting rod but I am sure a touch up or two with the rod got the sheep David back on track. God was not always a “sheep whisperer” with his “still small voice”.

I am reminded too of the words of Jesus when he spoke to the Disciples about their future of making more disciples for him “I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age." (Matthew 28.20 The Message)

He leadeth me! O blessed thought!

O words with heavenly comfort fraught!

Whate'er I do, where'er I be,

Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.

Chorus

He leadeth me, he leadeth me!

By his own hand he leadeth me;

His faithful follower I will be,

For by his hand he leadeth me.

Sometimes 'mid scenes of deepest gloom,

Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom,

By waters still, o'er troubled sea,

Still 'tis his hand that leadeth me.

Lord, I would clasp thy hand in mine,

Nor ever murmur or repine,

Content, whatever lot I see,

Since 'tis my God that leadeth me.

And when my task on earth is done,

When by thy grace the victory's won,

E'en death's cold wave I will not flee,

Since God through Jordan leadeth me.

            Authors:  Joseph Henry Gilmore (1834-1918)

The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 725