The thick mist hung in the air reducing visibility to a few yards. The fog obscured the landscape making my morning drive to work anything but usual. In fact, as I drove down the interstate I had to take a second and make sure that I was in fact in the right place. Because the fog changed the view of my surroundings, I couldn’t see my normal points of reference. The path was the same one that I travel every work day, and yet, the inclement weather made it seem different. My perception of what I should be seeing and what I could see were not one in the same; I didn’t know whether or not the road I was traveling was the right one.
I think the same thing that happened on my morning commute happens in life. Clouds settle around us and we don’t know whether the path we are walking is the right one. We can’t see up ahead and our normal vantage is obscured. Our points of reference – the good feelings that we get when we know we are walking in God’s plan – are nowhere to be found. We don’t remember changing directions and yet the road appears unfamiliar. Our guideposts are hidden from view.
This morning, I wasn’t sure I was on the right freeway until I saw the exit signs along the road. They were counting down in the same order that they do every morning. Even though the path felt different, the familiar points of exit told me that it was the right one. In life its the same way. God’s commandments are our road signs. And even when it feels unfamiliar, when we follow them, we can be confident that we are heading the right way.