Sunday thoughts: the God that goes before us

 

Photo by Egor Kamelev: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-car-on-roadway-while-raining-during-nighttime-754147/

Over the Christmas period of 2022-2023 I found myself driving the 3-hour journey back from visiting family, alone save my small children asleep in the back of the car.   It was dark - very dark - I'd left late so the children could go to sleep and the roads for most of the way were unlit.  I knew my home awaited me, but I could not see further than my headlights allowed.  I was, at oftentimes, unsure of what exact part of the journey I was on, despite having done this journey maybe hundreds of times in both the light and the dark.  Perhaps not for the first time, it occurred to me how crazy it can seem to be travelling at such speed (and by, 'such speed', I mean a perfectly safe and legal 60!) when I can't see that far ahead of me.   The reason why?  Because, rightly or wrongly, I trusted that the road was there.  I knew that the road was large enough for my car, that the signs would warn me when I needed to slow up because there was a junction ahead, and that if I followed that road it would lead me home to my house, despite me not knowing exactly where I was at all times. 

It was perhaps the step that my life was taking that caused me to ponder these thoughts far more than before as I drove.   I'd just taken a step into the unknown by leaving my career, having come to the decision that this was something I needed to do in order to explore what I felt God might be calling me to.  There were no clear plans for the way ahead - I was, as it were, taking a step into the darkness.   For much of my life I have been at a point where I could say with some level of certainty what I'd be doing that time next year.  There are various points when that has not been the case - and this was one of them.  Of course, on pondering this one realises that actually this situation is not actually the exception, but one of those situations when the truth is made more obvious.  By that, I mean that actually every day is step into the dark - none of us know what is round the corner, what God has in store.  We cannot put our trust in our own plans.  James reminds us of this, rebuking those who say: "today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money", and pointing out: why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow (James 4:13-14).

But as I drove along that dark road, at the same time very consciously aware that the next steps in God's plan for my life were currently out of sight, I was struck by the similarities between my literal and my metaphorical journeys.  I trusted the path I was taking on my car journey - and that was all I needed in order to take me where I needed to go.  Likewise, the Bible says:

For we walk by faith, not by sight (1 Corinthians 5:7)

and

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6)

and

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 119:105)

and

Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, "This is the way, walk in it", when you turn to the right or when you turn the left. (Isaiah 30:21)

God does not promise us that we will be able to see the way ahead with total clarity, but he does promise us a safe path upon which to walk.  Sometimes he shows us the way ahead, but sometimes we are in darkness and we must simply let him take us by the hand and lead us.    Like me in my car, it would have been dangerous, even suicidal, for me to suddenly decide to leave the road and veer off into the fields, but in his word and in our hearts God gives us the things we need to keep us on the road - the road signs, the cats-eyes, the lights lighting the way ahead just enough to see which way to step next.

And what is the path, the road, we need to walk in the Christian life?  The Bible is clear that it is God who directs exactly where that road shall lead us.  We can spend a lot of time worrying about making sure we're going in the right direction, to the right places - the right jobs or careers or vocations or 'life choices', but actually it is God who sets out those paths.  For I know the plans I have for you... (Jeremiah 29:11) God told the exiles, and he says the same to us too.   God's call to us is to keep on the road - that is to trust him, to walk in obedience to him, to walk with his word directing how we should walk.  We may not be able to see ahead, but the current path is illuminated by his word so that we can stick to it.

Finally, as I drove although I did not know which way the road would turn next or how long it was until the next junction, I did know with certainty that my home was at the end?  Why?  Because, as I've said, I'd travelled this road hundreds of times.  I know what lies at the end and I know that this way will take me.  I haven't completed this walk of life before, done a 'practice run' of the journey to know it works.  But there is one who has walked it.  And he said this:

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.’

Thomas said to Jesus, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’

But Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'  (John 16:1-6)

The road we travel is Jesus himself - a passage of safety and of life.  Just as I made my way home that night with confidence, not because I saw ahead of me, but because I trusted the road itself as a safe passage, so to we can trust Jesus - he who is life, safety, love and the way.