This Foggy Road

 

I've been thinking alot about roads, lately.  The road I'm on, the road less traveled, the road not taken, the road ahead.  A week ago, I thought I knew where my road was going.  Everything seemed fine.  And then a bump, and my path diverged from the road I thought I was on.

Two months ago, I didn't even know that my road was going to take me over the river (actually, both the Navasota and the Trinity, along with several other creeks) and through the woods (the southern Piney Woods, to be exact), to a little town much like the one I grew up in.  It wasn't on my radar as anything but a temporary assignment to provide a church some assistance until they could find their permanent solution.  Turns out, the permanent solution was for me to quit being temporary.

As I pondered the possibilities, considered my options, weighed the pros and the cons, I also kept my ears attuned to the still small voice of the Lord.  It's a voice with which I am not unfamiliar; I have heard it often in my heart.  I've spent a lifetime training my ears to be attentive to the voice of the Lord, the leading of the Spirit of God.  My life depends on being directed by the God I serve.  He has a plan for me, a path already laid out.  All I need to do is get in the way and walk in it.

All along my path, there have been bumps in the road, twists and nauseating turns, washed out roads and what I assumed were detours.  But looking back now I can see that the road I took was the road He kept me on.  He didn't let me get lost, or spin out of control on some invisible patch of ice.  He kept me from turning this way or that to avoid a treacherous stretch of highway.  In all my life, I can't say that I have turned either to the right or the left, but rather I have kept myself on the road ahead.  Regardless of the cost, regardless of the consequences, regardless of the challenges, I am determined to stay on the road He has set before me.

A few years ago, I was driving a route (literally, now, not figuratively) I had only driven a handful of times.  I was coming home late in the night, with a dense fog lying low over the road.  I was listening to something good on the radio, and caught up in what I was hearing, I missed a turn because I missed a sign.  It's a pretty big one too, a fact I have confirmed on a number of subsequent occasions.  On that particular night, it might have been obscured by the fog, or perhaps I just blinked and missed it.  Regardless of which, I didn't even realize my mistake until I was far enough along to have reached my destination...and discovered that my destination was not where I was headed.  I was far off course, 100 miles from home, 2 hours delayed, and almost out of gas in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere.  Fortunately, there is more than one way to get to where I was going, and there are also 24-hour gas pumps if you have a credit card.  I did eventually get home.  And I never missed my turn again.

I have been on a certain road for a while now, an interstate highway so to speak, and I was in the fast lane.  I knew where I was going, and I had the pedal all the way to the floor.  My destination was marked with a great big X.  I knew my ETA.  My speed was set, my gaze was fixed on the far end of the road.  There was no fog, and I clearly saw the sign that God had set for me, directing me off the four-lane onto this curving Farm-to-Market.  Only, the FM wasn't going to take me where I thought I was going.  I had a choice; stay with the road I was on, or follow God's direction.  So I chose to follow the Lord, just as I hope I've always done.

And everything changed.

This is not an easy road I have taken, and my destination is not as clear as it was before.  Like the picture I posted above, where I'm at is beautiful and bright and clear.  The grass is green, the weather is wonderful.  But the road ahead disappears beyond a hill and into the trees, with a low lying fog across my path.  I can't see the end now, not even the next stop along the way.  I just know I'm here now, and the Lord is right here with me.  I may not know where I'm going, but I trust the one who has guided me this far, and I know He won't let me down.