When God asks you to do something, do you ever get so distracted by the details that you get stuck? Do you feel overwhelmed or paralyzed with fear and anxiety about what’s to come? Do you panic when you can’t see the full picture and don’t understand God’s purpose in the journey?
When God gives me a direction, He usually doesn’t tell me what to expect when I get there. There is no colorful map or detailed outline of what to expect. He simply says, “Fix your eyes on Me and go where I send you. I want you to trust Me one step at a time.”
When I was a senior in high school, I struggled with decisions about the future and what God wanted for my life. I could see the next steps, but I didn’t know what the outcome would look like and wrestled with fear about all the steps along the way. One crisp morning, I was driving to school in some of the thickest fog I’d ever seen. I quickly realized that looking straight ahead was useless—I could only see a dense white cloud, and no amount of eye strain was going to make a difference. The only way to make it safely to my destination was to look directly at the road immediately in front of me. If I looked directly down in front of my car, I could see the lines on the road. I could see the boundaries that were in place to keep me safe and ensure I stayed within them. I’ll never forget God whispering to my heart that morning, “Don’t stare into the fog of your life either. Look at the road right in front of you and let Me worry about what is coming down the road. Fix your heart on Me and follow the path I’m giving you one step at a time.”
I wish I could say that this foggy morning in high school was the last time I struggled with staring into an unclear future and panicking. Spoiler alert: it’s not, and far from it. However, our merciful and gracious God continues to speak to my heart, asking me to trust Him. Sometimes I’m like Moses, questioning God about my credentials and asking if surely there isn’t someone better, someone more qualified, someone stronger… might I suggest an extrovert, God? And our Father reminds me that I don’t need to understand His plan; I just need to trust Him.
Our pastor used an analogy of a dot-to-dot picture during a sermon a couple of weeks ago that really resonated with me. His daughter struggled with a dot-to-dot picture and told her mom that she couldn’t figure out how the legs of the giraffe were supposed to look. Her mother gently reminded her that she didn’t have to know how the picture should or would look; she just needed to follow the dots, in order, one at a time. One dot at a time. Oftentimes, that is how it looks when God calls us to something in our life. We just need to make ourselves available and not get distracted by the details and all the “what ifs.” We need to get busy and do the next right thing.
selah and salt 