Perspective

I thought that just driving a 16' Penske truck with a car trailer across country was stressful enough, but then your GPS says drive 137 miles to Albuquerque you add fog so thick that you can hardly see the lane to the left or to the right. It's so unbelievably thick that you have absolutely no perspective whatsoever and I can't even tell if I am driving up hill or down except for the shifting of the large, loud engine of the truck I'm driving. Thankfully I have the soft glow of my iPhone giving me a slight idea of what the road ahead does but that still doesn't do much for the stress of driving a very large vehicle at 63 mph when you can only see 10' in front of you at a time. There are only 2 things that comfort me in that very stressful situation; the occasional red tail lights of the cars occassionally passing me and the solid white line to my right side that keeps me from vearing off into an unknown ditch or who knows what else.

Perspective is so important when you're a Christian and you have to live in this world that pursues everything completely opposite to what we know to be true and priority. As we head down that incredibly long road that our Creator calls us to live we encounter moments of fog where visibility is going to be extremely limited and the potential danger increases exponentially, with just the slightest deviation off our course we could quickly find ourself in a ditch or worse. The white lines are the spiritual disciplines we set, practice and implement every day, the red tail lights are the strong Christian influences that we connect with that act as examples, encuragment and accountability when we are feeling weak or diminished. When these moments come if we do not have the white lines and red tail lights it will mean certain disaster. If the road suddenly goes left or right and I don't have that solid white line acting as a bright guide letting me know where not to cross then I could wander off the path without realizing it and next thing I know, destruction. While the red tail lights were far less frequent than I would like they bring a great comfort to me because while they are near me for only a moment and then they slowly get farther away, as I watch their path in a moment of such darkness I can now follow in their steps and it keeps me on track until hopefully the fog thins or dissipates completely.

Proverbs 3:5-6 is a verse that most Christians who have been a Christian for any significant amount of time know very well and many probably use it as their favorite verse or "life verse". It says,
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."
I have found that typically people focus mostly on the first part of the verse but don't quite gather all that is said in the last 6 words and how those 6 words add so much to everything before it. I read that verse and I can't help but notice that everything leading up to those 6 words is a pretty tall order and I would think that if we are truly honest with ourselves it's not an easy or natural thing to do. Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart, we do not live in a trustworthy world or in the midst of a trusting society so to ask someone to give that trust to someone COMPLETELY is a challenge to say the very least. Then it says lean not on YOUR own understanding, which if you watch any TV or read any magazines or read social media then you know that everything in this world tells us to trust your instincts, do what you think is right or makes you happy. However, IF you can manage to do this and in ALL ways acknowledge Him (Jesus) THEN here's what happens then, HE (Jesus) will make your paths straight. To make your paths straight means to take the question out of the decision. You no longer have to wonder what to do, where to go or how things are going to happen in the future. If you're walking down a road that has lots of curves, turns, forks and bends in it then it can be a challenge to navigate your way and very easy to get lost or turned around. But if you're walking down a straight path it's pretty hard to mess that up. This verse is saying that when you trust Jesus with everything and put your faith in Him instead of yourself that He will make your decisions easy. Not just easy, but obvious. This is huge. The Holy Spirit pointed this truth out to me a few months to a year ago and I tried diligently to get my students to grasp this but grasping and implementing are two very different things and if grown adults have a pretty difficult time with this then students are going to take some time.

The road I was driving down tonight could not have been much straighter, yet like I said, that doesn't change the fact that I couldn't see 10 feet in front of me and so I had to trust in that solid white line because my life and the life of my wife & Lois depended on it. When those moments come it's too late to start implementing biblical principles in your life life studying the Word of God on a daily basis, talking and meditating with the Holy Spirit to learn to discern the Lord's will and all the other things we've grown up hearing we're supposed to be doing. Same is true for trying to build relationships with people that point you to Christ, encourage you and keep you accountable in your weakest moments. When the fog rolls in, you have what you have. You will do what you're in the habit of doing. You'll turn to the people that you already have as focal points in your life and those things will either save you or doom you.

I recently got the new iPhone 7 Plus (yes, I know it's been out a while). One of the very cool features of this iPhone is in the camera app you have a new photo taking mode called "Portrait Mode" and what it does is it detects what you are trying to focus on and it blurs the surrounding background. It's called "depth effect" and it makes for a really sharp photo because it removes all the distractions form what you want everyone to focus on. This is what happens when you Trust in the LORD with ALL your heart and lean NOT on your OWN UNDERSTANDING and in ALL your ways acknowledge HIM. My encouragement or challenge to you is that whether you are driving through a fog, just came out of a fog or you've been driving in clear weather for a while and you are well overdue for some fog that you will realize the importance of having the right PERSPECTIVE and start implementing right choices for your future so that next time you encounter that terrifying fog you will be stressed but not lost because you will have that white line and red tail lights to guide you through it.