When The Way Is Clouded

When the Way Is Clouded

O LORD, you are my lamp. The LORD lights up my darkness. In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.

2 Samuel 22:29-30

Sad to say, life often hands us traumatic situations. I faced one when my then thirty-eight-year-old husband was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. While he was battling pain and the side effects of chemotherapy, I was caring for him and our two young children in addition to continuing my job as a high school teacher. Obviously, I was physically and emotionally drained.

Early one autumn morning, I left for my classroom and found myself driving through dense fog. Everything was so murky I had to drive by instinct on the back road out of our neighborhood. After proceeding at a creep for several minutes, I guessed the stop sign should be just ahead. Ah, there it was.

As I edged the car forward, I decided the fog wouldn’t be as heavy on the overpass. At least I’d be able to see from there. I inched to the top and was stunned by an incredible sight. The little valleys surrounding the expressway brimmed with pink mist rather than gravylike gloom. Above the mysterious mist the sun’s rays streamed through gorgeous purple and orange clouds. I gasped at the majestic scene.

Below, cars crawled through the murk I had just escaped. If only they could have this view, I thought.

When I had to leave the overpass and descend into the fog again, the memory of the beautiful scene went with me. I continued on to school, strangely refreshed. I knew that even as our family struggled through our own darkness, God had granted me a glimpse of his beauty and his presence in the scary murk of our family’s medical crisis. And I knew, in time, he would lead me to an emotional place where I could see above my personal fog. —SANDRA

Lord, life’s fogs are scary. Sometimes they last for a mere day or two; other times they seem to go on forever. During those times, I wonder where you are, why you don’t sweep away the pain. Give me more glimpses of your beauty and your presence. Help me to realize in a new way that you are with me.

It is not our trust that keeps us, but the God in whom we trust who keeps us.

—OSWALD CHAMBERS (1874–1917), SCOTTISH BIBLE TEACHER, YMCA CHAPLAIN IN EGYPT