In the Light of Day

If you think of darkness as a loss of the ability to see the path ahead then in all honesty it feels like a very dark time in my life. My plans for the future have been a bit scrambled by my wife’s battle with cancer, changes related to my partial retirement and the seemingly unending struggle to find where exactly we will be living next year.

Though the details of your life may differ the

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challenges remain the same. We are all put to the test moment by moment to decide where we will choose to go, how we will decide to get there and who we will travel with. In the swirl of daily battles our hope remains in the promises of God. He has promised to be our light. all we have to do is to follow. We do not need to know in advance the twists and turns, the cliffs to climb or the dangers that lie ahead. We do need to completely trust that He has promised to walk ahead of us and to lead us all the way to the city of God!

For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Hebrews 11:10

Getting Through the Fog

About an hour south of us along the highway there is a stretch of road often covered by a dense fog. It could be a nice sunny morning everywhere else as you drive along then suddenly you find yourself unable to see more than a few feet in front of your car. Stopping is not an option because another car from behind could run right into your car. I have found the best option is to get behind a tractor trailer and follow it through. Powerful headlights enable the truck driver to see far better than I.

Sometimes in our spiritual lives we can also get lost in a fog. When our goal is to be known for someone we are not by taking possession of things that are not ours we are living in a spiritual fog. We lose perspective of what and who really matter in our lives. Little desires appear important and great horizons disappear. But instead of putting on the brakes in fear we need to look to the light of the Lord Jesus ahead. He sees clearly what lies in front of us. We can rest content with our position because He will bring us safely out into the sunshine. If you feel like you are passing through the deepest fog remind yourself that there is no better place to be than just behind Jesus because He is the light of life!

Changing Seas

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you the night is bright as the day,.  for darkness is as light with you. Psalm 139:9-10

Maybe to you seagulls at the beach are just a nuisance and a pest. Sometimes they pass over our heads dropping little bombs of blessing or they swoop down to snatch a piece of sandwich from our hands. We usually meet them at the beach because that is where their world and our’s intersect. But their home is the constantly changing sea while ours is the land. Unlike us who pack our things and run for safety when storms approach, wind and tide do not bother them. They fly out to sea and ride out the storms calling whatever sea-shore to where they are blown their new home.

Right now whether we are approaching the dawn of a new day or the sunset of an old God offers us the same assurance He gives the gulls. When the terror of the unknown lurks like an enemy in our imaginations we need to remember, that our problems are no greater than Joseph’s when he fled for Egypt just ahead of Herod’s blood thirsty soldiers. Joseph’s faith like ours was not a guarantee of a placid life, but of God’s help in any danger. When all sorts of changes come knocking at our door today we can run for shelter or we can spread our wings like the seagulls. When we choose to trust God like them we will discover that even at the point farthest from our familiar His hand will lead us. Even when our changing seas threaten, His promise and His right hand will hold us and keep us even at the uttermost parts of the sea!

 

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