Monday, June 22, 2015

Where to Focus During Impossible Circumstances

I had the blessing of spending Father's day with my Dad. The photo is of Dad, my brother, and my nephew- three generations of strong and worthy men. There were some tense moments driving here where I wasn't sure I would make it. As night descended on my last hour of the drive from NC, it began to rain. I used the windshield washer to eradicate the dirty smears. Then the storehouse of water in the sky opened up, and my wipers pushed to full speed. As the lights of oncoming cars in the darkness hit my windshield, I (very unhappily) could not see a thing. A sheen of opacity covered my windshield and I could barely see the road. The narrow construction lane prevented me from pulling over. I had no choice but to forge forward (praying) and keep my eyes on one small portion of the windshield that showed the white line edge of the road. I tried to stay just to the left of the white line. Somehow, I made it safely to my parent's house, never taking my eyes off the white line.

The next day, I checked the fluid in my windshield washer. There was oily gunk on the washer indicator stick. That oil on the windshield had reflected the oncoming car headlights, and it was a miracle I'd been able to see at all.

I flushed the fluid out, added strong glass cleaner to the now empty container hoping to dissolve the gunk, flushed that, and refilled with washer fluid. All of this was at the suggestion of my father, who was totally correct. Hoping all is clear now, but the only true test will be at night in similar conditions.

As I pondered the whole frightful situation, a spiritual lesson (of course) presented itself. When we are blinded by all the circumstances of life, unable to see how on earth we can navigate in such impossible conditions, we need to keep our eyes on the one thing we know will keep us on the path. Keep our eyes on Jesus. He is the white line. He will guide us home to the Father. If we can see Him, it is all we need to safely reach our journey's end.
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Hebrews 12:1-3
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

1 comment:

  1. GM Vicky! A bunch of great lessons. But first I praise God you arrived safely.
    When you mentioned you only had 9 hours left to drive, and then had a wonderful experience sight-seeing...wondered how long you waited before continuing on the road.

    And then there's a lesson in there somewhere on keeping the equipment in order, and then one on checking fluids before we leave.

    Praying for you as you save the Babies! Have an absolutely wonderful blessed day!

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