God’s Presence When It’s Too Foggy to See the Path

Straight. Paved. And well lit. (Preferably with cute Narnia lampposts every 50 feet or so.)

That is what I wish the path from where I am now to the place where God wants me to be looked like.

Corey and I recently made some significant changes in our life. Necessary but hard changes. And it’s easy  for me to get caught up in wondering where God is taking me and how the heck I’m gonna get there.

 Are we doing the right things? Are we leading our kids the way they need to be led? Are we willing to give up the things God wants us to give up? Doing the things God wants us to do? If I could just see through the fog to the end of the path, I could make the necessary decisions to get there.

But God doesn’t work like that. He promises he’ll never to leave us, but he doesn’t promise that we won’t have to do a little bushwhacking to get to our destination. He certainly doesn’t give us a detailed itinerary to get from point A to point B.

And that’s probably a good thing. Because if he did, I don’t think I’d even step foot on some of the paths. You know what I’m talking about right? I definitely would’ve done a 180 at the Breast Cancer Trailhead. But there are plenty of other challenging trails I would have steered clear of as well. Like the Long Road to Haiti Trail.

Our family flew to Haiti in July.  Our itinerary from the airline said the trip should take about 10 hours. It took 36.  We spent about a zillion hours in airport terminals and 14+ hours in the air flying from Minneapolis to Boston to Fort Lauderdale to New York City to Port au Prince. (Whew. Just typing that makes me tired. But I did get this cute shirt out of the deal.)

That path was anything but straight, paved and well-lit. We were at the mercy of Jet Blue Airlines as we sat in rows of hard seats next to strangers and carry-ons while waiting for updates to our flight schedule. With each new update, we did the next thing they told us to do because, well, we didn’t really have another choice. If we wanted to get to Haiti, we had to trust that Jet Blue would eventually get us there.

It was challenging and frustrating and if I’d had enough light to see that insane path ahead of time, I probably would have said, “Hey boys, let’s just put this money away for college instead of going to Haiti to work on a house.” And I would have missed out on a million little glimpses of God loving me and Corey and my boys.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

So today I’m flipping through my Haiti pictures, remembering what God did, and reminding myself that our Haiti trip experience was not an anomaly. When you step out in faith, an undeniable display of God’s sweet sweet love and provision is the norm. It’s in our obedience when the path is bumpy, twisted and poorly lit that God lavishes us with his presence.

And that’s what I want. More of God’s presence. So I’ll just wait for direction, do the next thing God asks of me and trust that even though some segments of this path really suck, God’s gonna get me where he wants me to be.