Journey GPS
Guide
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Have you ever found yourself traveling down an unfamiliar road? Oftentimes, we tend to know our immediate neighborhood rather well, but when venturing further out we become dependent either on a set of written directions, a map, or an electronic GPS. Each of those can prove to be helpful, but what happens if the written directions don’t include a crucial step or the mile marker you were told to look for is no longer there? Or how about the map that doesn’t show the new development that has taken place? And let’s not mention the reliable electronic GPS that is sometimes silent, reroutes your trip, instructs you to make a “legal u-turn when possible”, or tells you service is not available in the area you are traveling and you completely lose your signal.
Trying to find your way to a designated location without accurate written directions, a map, or a properly functioning or updated GPS system can prove to be frustrating, as well as create more challenges later on your journey, such as later realizing we have traveled the wrong direction for an extended period of time until you suddenly recall passing that exact area about an hour earlier even though you were one hundred percent positive that you were going the right way this time. Now that the frustration and unease is mounting, you declare you are lost. You’ve noticed it’s getting late in the day, the traffic on this road is diminishing, there are no visible road signs to guide you or an exit to take so you can ask someone at a gas station how to get to where you are trying to go.
A trip where you find yourself in an uncomfortable or uncertain position, such as the aforementioned, could understandably cause one’s anxiety level to raise, and panic to set in. Extreme feelings of fear, helplessness and hopelessness may even begin to arise. If others are traveling with you, by now they also know that you are lost and have begun to ask you question after question:
Are you sure you know where you are going?
How far are we away?
How soon will we be there?
Needless to say, anxiety rising with each question, your reply may be, “I honestly do not know where we are, how long it will be before we get to our destination, or even to a place recognizable.” Putting the truth out there doesn’t always bring comfort, but it does assist with facing our true reality.
I personally found myself experiencing this same kind of lost feeling, in the middle of nowhere it seemed, traveling down an unfamiliar road where nothing was familiar on my career path. I couldn’t access anything from my memory bank that reassured me that I was on the right path. In fact, the more I tried to travel down the path, giving it everything that I had in me, the more and more I began to sense that the journey of life I knew so well from the past had abruptly ended without an exit ramp to lead me in a new direction where I could regain my confidence, a keen awareness of belonging and an ability to again take care of the necessities I was accustomed to. My desire was to acquire all that I needed to move forward that somehow went missing along the way so that I could have a new beginning.
When I began the next stretch of my life journey, I knew a few people who stated they had connections while I, on the other hand, had my experience and education that I thought for certain, together, would ensure my new unfamiliar route on my journey would be short lived and that I would quickly regain my footing on a paved familiar road again. However, I must share, some routes we are led to and travel through are seasons that last a little longer than we would like for them to. For me, the people I knew with connections began to dwindle one by one. My experience, education, skills, and knowledge remained intact and survived the unknown transition, but did not seem to immediately carve out a place for me as I had hoped or expected.
To those around me both near and far, it seemed as though it gave others justifiable reasons to “throw stones” my way, which further exacerbated my feelings, as well as belief that I missed my turn somehow, due to the unsupportive responses I received when I reached out. Needless to say, I put all of my education, experience and skill set I already had on the shelf, per se, and began to seek God even more to find my new way, so I could once again not feel as though life was somehow passing me by, so I could regain my footing, check my wings and stretch them out again, so I could once again fly and soar. Nevertheless, what it taught me to do is to not become stressed, depressed, or dismayed, but to trust God as my true GPS. No matter where I am and there will never be one thing that my God cannot do, and that is, guide, provide and shield me now and forevermore throughout my journey of living life and pressing toward the mark of the high calling, and the specific path that is made for my feet to walk, and then stretch my wings and fly again—not necessarily where I had been but perhaps now in a new direction.
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Book Details
About the Book
As we travel throughout our journey of living life, we have an opportunity to trust in ourselves, things, positions, status, abilities, talents, others, a connection and or in God, the creator of both heaven and earth or any combination of the aforementioned. No matter at what crossroads we may approach, enter into, travel “round about” or exit from, there are some key “tools” that help us navigate through whatever the “terrain” or “waves” that may come our way.
In this first book of the Journey GPS book series, traveler’s on the journey of living life will be provided with an array of ways to take proactive steps to ensure that they are not only “dressed” properly but “filled” with ways to receive greater understanding, knowledge, wisdom and a “personal skill-set” that God freely gives to those that ask and seek Him to more easily move forward continuously, no matter what, as we trust Him as our true Guide! Continue the Journey!
”The true treasures of life are those that are stored up in heaven and gradually released according to His will, His plan, His way and His timing which is why trusting God as our true GPS makes a significant difference so we may continue no matter the duration or the distance” (Dr. Sasie m).
About the Author
Dr. SASIE is a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, who gives all glory, honor, and praise to Him. Although always a believer, she did not always understand the value and the vital necessity to having a personal and intimate relationship with the Lord. As a child and young teenager, she often fondly thought of Jesus Christ as more like a history lesson based on her upbringing in the Lutheran faith and attendance of parochial school through middle school, where she was exposed to the doctrines and beliefs according to the Bible and the triune God, which was the focus of daily religion class at her Lutheran school she attended and participated in for the majority of every Wednesday morning. That is where she received more in-depth teachings and later was confirmed under the Lutheran faith at the age of thirteen. Dr. SASIE first gave her life to Jesus Christ and accepted Him as Lord and Savior at the age of nineteen, shortly before having heart surgery.
Just as others have, Dr. SASIE experienced a series of life-changing experiences and circumstances that left her feeling slightly lost, disappointed, and like although the scriptures states “never will He leave us nor forsake us” that He had left and forsaken her at a time she needed Him most, thus the decision to further study the Bible independently as if it were her research topic similar yet different to her dissertation work completed in education because she knew that if God had helped her be successful at turning around schools, student’s choices, and their academic achievement, that surely He could help her turn around the unusual back-to-back crisis’s and challenges she suddenly faced despite her dependence solely on God, and as a result, a book series and a business came to fruition despite her realization what the future journey had in store. Initially, Dr. SASIE didn’t think she could make it, but later came to the realization that God allowed her to live through it, survive it, and began to flourish through the small beginnings because He already knew she could handle it.
When life no longer made sense, she spent even more time in the presence of God and sought His face and their relationship grew and grew. Through this journey, the Lord taught her how to not only survive the devastation, but to thrive and then help others do the same. Dr. SASIE made a promise to God that one day she would share some of her experiences and tell everyone she could, and everywhere she went, that God is real, and able to do the unthinkable and impossible no matter what the trial, circumstance, or challenge, we find ourselves in or approaching in life.
Dr. SASIE is a yielded vessel to God who has given her life, time, skills, talents, and gifts to Him, to use as He sees fit. She knew at the age of five that she would one day be a teacher. She now knows that even then, the Lord had a calling on her life and knows that the good work He started in her, He was already bringing to fruition. While she thought teaching was the end, He had so much more in store to become an educational leader for the majority of her nearly twenty-year career.
More About Dr. SASIE
Dr. SASIE is a new author and the sole owner of SASIE Solutions. She has previously served in multiple capacities in public education as well as not for profit entities as a volunteer, teacher, principal, and consultant, in settings of various social economic statuses, with the majority of her leadership taking place at lower socioeconomic schools. Her experience has been with preschool through high school alternative education students. Dr. SASIE earned her Bachelor of Arts in psychology, a Masters of Arts in education administration, and an advanced certification as a Superintendent from the University of Illinois, Springfield. Dr. SASIE also earned a doctorate in educational leadership and completed her capstone/dissertation on turning schools around from Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri. While completing her doctorate and leading a school of five hundred students in St. Louis with seventy-five staff members, she simultaneously participated in an out-of-state distance learning program to become specialized as a Turnaround School Specialist at the University of Virginia, Darden School of Executive Leadership. Additionally, she holds an elementary teaching certification and a middle grades certification for multiple states.
In addition, only to bring inspiration to our youth of today, it is shared that Dr. SASIE remained on honor roll throughout high school and graduated not only a semester early, but also in the top ten percent of her high school class of approximately three hundred fifty. In college, her final grade point average for her B.A. was a 3.01, M.A. was 3.6, her Advanced Studies was a 3.81 and her Doctorate was a 3.93. While this list may seem impressive, she counts it as less significant in comparison to her work, study, and personal relationship with God, because she knows God has helped her see a way to utilize her education, and professional experience, as well as her life journey, to make a difference in the lives of others, be it youth or adults by developing and supporting the whole person and her beliefs that we are a five part being and all of us needs to be nurtured and balanced (Spiritually, Anatomically, Socially, Intellectually and Emotionally) in her roll as a transformational leader/teacher/consultant, and it is hoped that while pursuing that which is of interest or an aspiration that the difference others makes include not only high marks in your position, but it is realized that it is still second in comparison to the level of excellence you are able to lift up and keep up for Jesus Christ.