Fog! Thick, swirling, engulfing fog! And I was hopelessly lost. I had
decided to take a shortcut home to save time, but now I had absolutely
no idea where I was. My GPS was in a drawer somewhere in my house, and I
no longer carried maps because I had a GPS. How ironic!
I crawled
along slowly, for fear of running off the road or meeting another car in
the middle of the road. As I squinted through the ghostly tendrils
curling across my window, I noticed a cross-road ahead, but I couldn't
make out any signs. Feeling a sense of panic beginning to build up, I
decided to pull off onto the shoulder, and putting on my flashers, I did
the only thing I could under the circumstances: I began to pray.
Suddenly, a verse from the Bible popped into my mind:
Isaiah
30:21 "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear
a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'" (NIV)
For a moment, I was stunned. Was that God telling me that I should
follow this side road? Which way? Now I was really confused and more
than a little scared.
Suddenly, out of the fog, a whirling red
light appeared behind me, its rays wavering through my back window, and
I heard a muffled voice on a loud hailer: "You there, in the car. Are
you all right?"
The next thing I knew, there was a person
standing beside my window, shining a light on his police badge. I let
out a relieved sigh of gratitude. It was probably the only time in my
life when I would be so happy to see a flashing red light shining
through my back window!
As I began rapidly pouring out my
predicament, the officer kept patiently nodding his head. I didn't
realize how uptight I had been, and I could feel the tears of relief
threatening to spill out. The officer evidently saw my reaction, and he
quietly asked me where I was headed.
When I told him where I
lived, he said that he would drive ahead of me, and when he honked his
horn, I was to turn left at the traffic lights. Then I would be on
familiar ground and soon be home. It happened exactly as he had
promised, and as I pulled into my driveway, I quietly bowed my head in a
prayer of thanksgiving to the One who had promised so often to direct
our paths.
Sometimes, when we are faced with difficult
situations, we may feel that our minds are in a kind of thick fog, a
state of utter confusion, possibly even to the point of panic. We know
that we must make some important decisions that will affect our lives,
but how do we begin? It is then that we need to stop and "pull off the
road", as it were, and be still in God's presence, in order to calm down
and hear His voice. We must turn the entire matter over to the One who
has promised to guide us in the way we should go, because He knows the
way.
When we follow His leading, it won't be long until we can
see clearly what we are to do, and we can move confidently in the right
direction towards the goal.
Prayer: Lord, help us to rely on You
every day to guide us in the way that You have planned for us. Teach us
not to lean on our own understanding, but in all our ways to acknowledge
You, knowing that You will direct our paths. Amen
Sandycove Acres, Innisfil, Ontario, Canada
