Global Positioning System or GPS is a global navigation satellite system that has five main uses: 1) Location - determining a position; 2) Navigation - getting from one location to another; 3) Tracking - monitoring movement; 4) Mapping – showing where you are and showing route options; 5) Timing - making it possible to make precise time measurements so that an arrival time can be determined. Bundling up those uses and you have something that is quite helpful. When you use GPS, your current location is mapped and, if you enter a destination, GPS will map out various routes to get there. Once you start, it tracks your movement and calculates how long it will take you to get to your destination. In broadening the concept of position beyond what your GPS determines, position can mean to put or arrange someone or something in a specific place, posture or situation. And position is something that could have occurred in the past, as in I was there. It could be...
In many situations, the phrase has negative connotations. It describes opportunism or a lack of individual effort. It infers that you are using someone else’s success as a means to achieve your own. But the phrase can have some positive elements to it. It might be that the success you were able to achieve was based on help secured from another person. The phrase, in case you haven’t already guessed it, dates back to the 19th century when formal men's jackets had long flaps (tails) in the back. “Riding on someone’s coattails” - the imagery points to a person literally grabbing onto those fabric flaps to be pulled forward without walking themselves. In view of a positive element of the phrase, that of achieving something based on help secured from another, there are some significant achievements that we can only access by being dependent on Christ Jesus: 1. We can be redeemed: “And are justified by his grace as a gift, through the re...