Can’t See Beyond?
Driving through the fog is a lot like the future.
I can’t always see it.
I don’t always get it.
What’s ahead … and how does it all work out?
So I was driving my son to school this morning and we got to the edge of the city – and let’s just say the city disappeared behind us, and the countryside that we love to see every morning just wasn’t there.
Early morning mist has a way of hiding the local geography. Not really hard to understand. Fog can be as blinding as a blizzard at night. Haha, or a blizzard during the day for that matter.
I mean as hard as we looked, we could barely see beyond the edge of the road and into the surrounding field.
That stand of trees – gone. The horses – not there.
Ok, well, of course I am being a little facetious. You probably guessed it – the fog was heavy and completely masking what was out there in those fields and what was further down the road.
Yes, the city where we just were, did not disappear the moment we drove past the city limits. But it really looked that way. In fact, if you’d never been there before you’d have no clue as to what lay beyond the boundary of the fog. It would’ve been anyone’s guess really.
As I’m mulling over this fog business … it feels a little familiar in a way … I start to dialogue with Jesus and tell him my thoughts:
Can’t see. Fog!
Need some clarity. Direction!
Vision beyond where I’m at right now would be great thank you.
Normal human thoughts I guess. Wanting to have it all figured out. Ahead of time.
I’m reminded that I’ve been meditating a LOT on what sufficient means. What exactly does it mean that God is sufficient – for me, in me, through me?
[Interesting, next week our church has a women’s conference featuring that theme: sufficient.]
I can tell you from reading the Bible over the years that God is infinitely resourceful and loves to empower us and give us wisdom beyond what we know and can see. But I don’t really know what that actually means until I’ve actually experienced it.
Experience has a way of turning knowledge into something useful. In fact, God really wants us to experience Him, not just His words but Who He is, in our everyday life – moment by moment.
Just like the fog on my early morning drive this morning: sometimes the present has a way of hiding the future from me! It isn’t always easy to see ahead. We pray, we make choices to move forward in life, but honestly, sometimes you just don’t know what it’s going to look like until you get there.
And unlike my morning trek to the school every weekday where I know the terrain well – most decisions, choices, outcomes in life look like new things that I can’t see until I get up close and there’s less fog.
Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105 (NLT) David reminds us of the power of God’s Word. Even though I can’t see very far ahead in the fog (or my future!) His Living Presence is going ahead of me – shining on the path of my life – just a step ahead of where I’m at sometimes. Just like a lamp. Right by my feet on a foggy dark path.
That’s sufficiency right there. I’m able to move forward step by step, because that’s where the grace and strength is: step by step. Moment by moment. A car length at a time in the fog so to speak. God’s release of sufficiency into my core – always enough for one step more.
Sometimes we do have a bit more of a clue what’s ahead! That’s the light-to-my-path part of the scripture. Yep, sometimes we have more vision as we look ahead … but even a light on your path only shows you so far ahead. Well, there’s more sufficiency: empowerment from God to see a little further. More wisdom, more resources, more ability to navigate.
So to look ahead with clarity on happy-easy times … bring it on, right?
But when it’s rough going, we don’t always want to see what’s ahead. Like when I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. I didn’t sign up anywhere for a hard couple of years of pain and poor health … struggling to just get through a day.
But, in this place, for the months and months that followed – even years – I learned of His sufficiency at work on the inside of me. The first-hand experience of day by day and moment by moment reliance on His power being manifested (literally!) in my body as I fought this disease – what I knew about God became reality to me. The peace. The ability to sleep in spite of desperate pain. Knowing it was a hard battle, but my kids were doing ok with it. This was all by the grace and empowerment of God.
I saw His strength made perfect in weakness and His grace, being sufficient for me, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:9. I literally saw these processes of God at work in my body. I saw it too many times to think it just luck or ‘not my time to go’.
His healing power, doing what doctors could not do. God’s sufficiency at work in me, in the fog of difficulty and disease.
So in my inner conversations with God about the fog, and life, I realize that a large part of my understanding of who He is as God comes through my life’s processes – and seeing Who He is in the middle of it all. Whether glimpses of hard or easy ahead, it is God’s stabilizing factor – His great sufficient, empowering nature that propels.
And then I start to wonder if I really need the fog to lift at all. I mean, sure, it’s easier on one level without the fog, but it actually gives me traction in my pursuit of God. My experience with God has shown me that:
He works all things together for my good. Romans 8:28.
All the days planned for me are written in His book for me before one of them came to be. Psalm 139.
He has good plans for me. Jeremiah 29:11
And with the Presence of Almighty God on the inside of me – I have every resource I could possibly need. I can count on His sufficiency pulling me through every adversity.
Although I’d rather not have these battles and challenges, these places are actually the exact places where I experience the depth of who God really is – His power and ability, His healing and grace, His sufficiency.
God has fantastic outcomes assigned to every trial and hardship that I will ever face. The fog can’t stop it. These difficulties are the processes that bring those outcomes to us. We get to receive the outcome of God’s sufficiency in our daily life!
No I didn’t sign up for the cancer, or the fog today as I drove, but regardless of the situation, there is a release of hope and an outcome of victory to be received from God in every situation. It’s from God. It surely isn’t something I could make up for myself. It’s bigger than me.
How are you doing today? Most of us have some kind of fog somewhere, in some facet of life. I’m going to challenge you to seek God out, in the very middle of that fog – reach out – and grab onto His sufficiency. He loves to fill your heart with His perfect Hope that does not disappoint, but brings completion and resolution to everything that needs repair. It’s what He loves to do. Invite God deeper into your life – you won’t be disappointed.
Copyright (c) 2019 Jennifer Bryant-Choong. All Rights Reserved.
