The fog was thick on the drive into work this morning. In places the visibility was less than 200 feet so I had to pay close attention to what I was doing and what few surroundings that were visible. A person stays especially focused in such situations. There is not a lot of surrounding scenery to take your mind off of what you are doing.
Similarly, I have a device in my car that enables me to get to whatever address I punch into it. There are many such gizmo’s but mine is called a Tomtom. Now this particular device contains just the basic, no nonsense information. The bottom line is that it shows me where I am, where the road is in front of me, and shows me the approaching intersections a few hundred feet before I get to them. It will do a little more than that, but the point here is, it doesn’t show me what’s going on ten miles down the road. The screen is so small and I don’t have the opportunity to look at the big picture. I need to be content with the fact of “this is where you are” on your journey.
That makes me uncomfortable at times. What if this thing is taking me in the wrong direction? I want to see the big picture so I can decide if I wish to go that way or not. Sometimes, when I’m just playing around with it in my own home town, it tries to take me in directions that I know there are better ways. What if it is also doing that when I am totally lost? What if there is a better way?
My spiritual life is like that a lot of times as well. I like to know the big picture. “God, where are you taking me?” I’m not too keen on that “One day at a time, sweet Jesus . . .” song. No, I prefer a year in advance notice. I want to know where I am, where I am going, how best to get there, and how long it’s going to take. I want to unfold the big map, get out the atlas and look at the big picuture. But sometimes God says, “This little picture is all you get.” “Take no thought for tomorrow . . .”
It was a lot like that in Exodus, when God said to the Israelites, “Follow this.” and He put a pillar of fire in front of them to lead them. There was no “big picture”, but rather, Here is where you are, and here is where we stop for the night. There was no thinking, “Oh come one, lets go a little further today.” No sir. Tomorrow will be another day.
Man, that’s tough! That is trust indeed; trust that God’s timing and directions are always best; trust that He will always steer me in the right direction and at the right time; trust that He will tell me what I need to know when I need to know it. My responsibilty is to stay focused on where I am and make sure that God is still in front of me. My job is to be ready for “Turn here!” and then to turn, immediately and unquestioningly in the direction that He leads me.
My prayer for today, “Lord, let the little picture be enough.”
Leaving a Legacy 