Interstates and Dark Mountain Roads

“Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.” (Psa 105:119)

I’m a planner, a thinker, a problem solver. I don’t like driving blind. I like to see the whole road ahead before making decisions and moving forward. I’m not risk averse, but rather risk mitigating.  The same is true when going to a new field. There are many unknowns.  I can plan; I can prepare. God gives direction and I do my best to follow it but the best laid plans of men are only the plans of men. It is at these times that God speaks in a small, quiet voice and says, “trust me.”

A few years ago my family and I were enroute to weekend backpacking spot in the Allegheny Mountains . Due to our work schedules we had a late afternoon start for a drive that would take several hour.   In the beginning the interstate was broad and we could see the road ahead for miles. But, inevitably night fell and clouds blanketed the dimming sky concealing any hint of light. According to the GPS we were about thirty minutes away from our first nights camp at the trailhead – the time now approaching eleven’o’clock. As I made the turn from the state route onto the small winding road I began to feel apprehension. This narrow road wove up and down the mountains and along steep ravines with blind turns leading into blind turns. To make matters worse, the GPS system had lost signal in the shadow of the mountains. I consider myself a good driver but this was not a cruise on the interstate. All I could see was the small area the car headlights illuminated and the roadsigns. Sharp turns and jogs would appear suddenly from the darkness ahead.  We pressed forward in faith that this route would lead us to our destination, that even if we were only able to see the small section of road lit by headlights the road’s designers had left signs to show the way and hadn’t erroneously turned an arrow sign the wrong direction that would lead us off of the road.

It is challenging and humbling not knowing every turn to make beforehand. It requires trust and faith. God calls us to step out in faith God will set us on a journey with a destination.  He tells us to go as He points us in the right direction. Sometimes God’s direction is like an interstate cruise with gradual curves and wide lanes where you can see the road stretching on far ahead.

…And sometimes God will set you down a windy mountain road on a dark, cloudy night. All you can do is to diligently watch for the the signs left by the designer and trust Him that this road that He put you on leads to the destination, that it’s not a dead-end.

God promises that His word will be a “light to my feet and a lamp to my path”  not an daytime interstate cruise with turn-by-turn GPS directions and mile markers. There are certainly times when the road ahead is clear, when God’s plan and direction are laid out plain. At these times it seems so easy to do what He asks, almost impossible to disobey. (Even then, we must be wary not to become complacent and drive off the road.)  But more often God sets us on a journey and we can’t see every twist and turn.  All we can see is the little bit ahead illuminated by His Word and He says to us, trust me. Because God is not concerned only with getting us to the destination.  He is concerned just as much about our relationship with Himself.  He wants us to humble ourselves in obedience when life’s path isn’t clear and easy, to trust Him when we can’t see far ahead on the road, to rely on His road signs when the curves appear ubruptly from the shadows ahead. He asks us to step out in faith that the road will lead to the destination. He is the road designer. He has been here before you and set out signs along the way to point out the jogs and curves and that if we slow down and watch for those signs we will arrive safely.

This is so often our challenge.  We like our security of seeing and knowing. We like speeding down the interstate where the road is smooth and predictable and the lanes are wide. God asks us to leave that security and trust Him that even when the road is difficult to navigate that He has gone ahead of you and marked the way so that you can arrive safely at your destination. Too often we don’t want to slow down or carefully watch for the signs.

But more than that, He uses these those times to remind us that it isn’t by our strength that His plans come together (Rom 8:28). We are not the architects of this plan nor do we have the power to carry it out on our own. If God told us of a mission and then left it to us to prepare every detail, to plot every turn, and build the road, how would He be glorified? It would have been us who had done it – our glory. What a poor road that would be full of potholes and ultimately a dead-end. But instead when He prepares the way ahead we can say with Paul, “I will all the more boast in my weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). Look at what our God has done!  We can advance confidently knowing that He has marked gone ahead of us.

Imagine if God left it up to us to persuade the nations of His salvation from His wrath and judgement through our own mortal power? If such a task were left to me then I would fail before I began. How great a hope, then, that God has gone ahead and prepared the way and that He works through us (Phi 2:13) – that when we are on a dark, mountain road in life, if we rest in the confidence that God built this road then we will arrive safely at the end.