This week's Theme: God is With Me
Day 1: Promise of Guidance
It was the early days of GPS technology. I had a job assignment in a distant, unfamiliar shore town. All seemed well as I followed the turn-by-turn directions. And then suddenly I realized with dread and dismay that the great wide ocean loomed before me…
I was so shaken up that I cannot recall all the details—only that I had to reverse some distance off the bridge on which I had found myself. But I will never forget that feeling of panic and disorientation as I realized that the navigation system I had trusted had led me into danger.
Apparently, I am not the only one. I’ve learned of several cases where navigation systems have led people to all kinds of unexpected places—into bodies of water, up cliff-sides, into other countries…
These unfortunate experiences do not mean that navigation systems are worthless—only that they are not perfect. As with most things in life, the appropriate levels of vigilance, prudence, caution, and judgment are needed to avoid danger or mishap.
Perhaps we do not fully understand how much, and how urgently we should pray for the wisdom, vigilance, and discernment we need to navigate life. But for most of us, as one year closes and another begins we are suddenly more keenly aware of the great unknown before us. And the process of sifting through massive levels of information and choices seems more and more daunting.
Scripture gives us much help in finding balance in a world that can often seem to teeter towards extremes. Jesus warned against complete, unthinking, "mechanical" abandonment to ideas, systems, processes, and philosophies. Referring to the Pharisees as "blind guides," he cautioned, "If the blind lead the blind, they will both fall into a pit" (Matthew 15:14-15). But God does not leave us to navigate on our own. Centuries ago, He gave His people a promise:
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them (Isaiah 42:16).
Alexander McLaren provides us great insights into this promise:
Blind Travellers. [We] are blind, and [our] road is unknown to [us]. It is a symbol of our condition and of our paths in life. Our limited foresight cannot discern certainly even the next moment. It is always the unexpected that happens. We cannot tell what lies behind the next bend in the road, and there are so many bends; and behind one of them, we cannot tell whether it may be the next, sits ‘the Shadow feared of man....’ Not only God’s mercies, but our paths, are ‘new every morning...’
The Leader. How tenderly God makes Himself the leader of the blind pilgrims! It does not matter about being blind, if we put our hands in His. Then He will ‘be to us instead of eyes.’ Jesus took the blind man by the hand. So here is the promise of guidance by Providence, Word, Spirit. And here is the condition of receiving it, namely, our conscious blindness and realisation of the complexities of life, leading to putting ourselves into His hands in docile faith.
The gradual light. Darkness is made light. We receive the knowledge of each step, when it needs to be taken; the light shines only on the next; we are like men in a fog, who are able only to see a yard ahead.
The clearing away of hindrances. ‘Crooked things straight.’ A careful guide lifts stones out of a blind man’s way. How far is this true? There will be plenty of crooked things left crooked, but still so many straightened as to make our road passable.
The perpetual Presence. If God is with me, then all these blessings will surely be mine. He will be with me if I keep myself with Him. It is His felt presence that gives me light on the road, and levels and straightens out the crookedest and roughest path.
O Lord, lead us!
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