When You Can’t See Where God is Sending You

It was another 100% humidity day. Felt like Scotland in Spring. Not the desert in summer. The cold fog was so thick we couldn’t see but just a few feet in front of us driving down the road. I’ve never experienced such low visibility in all my years in Colorado since 1996! It taught me a new layer to the lesson about trusting God when you can’t see where God is sending you.

We marveled as we drove around town, mostly at how little we could see. We also marveled at how beautiful it all was. Pine trees and fence posts blurred into and then out of the thick blanket of grey.

We talked about how our lives are like this right now. God only gives us enough visibility for the new few feet at a time. I’ve heard lots of sermons on this topic in my life. Even again last weekend. But the sermons focus on the visibility. How God lights a lamp to my feet. Yes, we feel left in the dark about the whole plan, but we can see the little bit right around us. Currently, we are truly living life this way. People ask me logistical questions like what’s the timeframe, where’s the destination. I genuinely answer with a hearty laugh, “I’d like to know that too!” But God gives a little at a time and He is not showing me the next few steps, only the one in front of me. God lighting the path and the fog on the road isn’t just a symbolic way of living. It’s real-life experience.

But today on that fogged out road, it felt fresh on a whole new level mostly because we were driving down familiar roads. Back country places where I KNOW the streets. I know they exist, where they bend to the left and the right. My take away today wasn’t so much about the light only lighting up the little world around us, lamp to our feet.

My take away from the fog was this…

There is a road! There is a road even if and even when we can’t see it yet.

This is revolutionary. God has a path for me even if I don’t see it yet. I’m not aimlessly walking in the dark with a lamp around me. Nope. I’m on a foggy road and the visibility is very low but the path is clear. For the next few feet, I go left or bend right or straight. I maybe only know the path for the next few hours or days. I can’t see past that yet. But that doesn’t mean the road doesn’t exist. It’s disconcerting when we can’t see very far ahead of us on the path of life, but it also creates a deeper level of dependence on God and it ups the ante in our prayer life.

Especially in job loss, spouse loss, parent loss, a big move, a big transition in life like having your first baby or going off to college for the first time… in times of big changes whether in loss or gain, we can wonder what’s ahead and what the path will look like. When we have big questions about what’s ahead, it’s very reassuring to tell ourselves… the road is still there. The path is still there. We are just only able to see a little of it at a time right now.

Driving on the foggy road taught me that if we just freeze or stop because we can’t see very far, we’ll get stuck, or worse, cause an accident.

If we blaze forward and rush to get through the low visibility as quickly as possible, we’ll be reckless and probably find ourselves a wreck.

So when visibility is low and when you can’t see where God is sending you, try these three things:

1. Slow down more than normal (pray).
2. Keep moving forward, one step at a time (act).
3. Lastly, we need to keep the fog lights on (because God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and light to our path).

If we do this, then whether we walk to the left or the right, God will make our paths straight.

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¹⁹ For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. ²⁰ And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. ²¹ And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 

Isaiah 30:19-21