We had no answers. Only Questions. What was going on? Who were we now? What would we do here? Where were we headed? Our internal sat navs drew a blank. Swapping Inner city London to a fish farm in Devon hadn’t been part of our plan.

Rabindranath Tagore, Indian poet said, ‘Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings while the dawn is still dark.’

Can foggy seasons fuel faith if we let them? When the bottom appeared to drop out of our world we felt alone, afraid and homesick for the familiar. Yet when we felt most lost, we experienced the wonder of being found. The emptying of our hands made room for the filling of our hearts.
In our isolation we experienced God’s companionship more intensely than ever before. In our disorientation His word became an illuminating roadmap.

When we had no props to lean on we discovered what it meant to fling ourselves on God as our rock. Without our own securities we had to reach for God’s road map. We had to trust Him as our Guide.
Jeremiah 29 v 1 say, ‘For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

This ‘prospering’ looked very different to how we imagined it might. Our soul prospering was in direct correlation with our security props diminishing. (*Which wouldn’t have been our preference.)
In the Exodus story, the children of Israel are liberated from slavery in Egypt. Yay! But rather than marching directly to the promised land they meander on an unexpected route via the red sea. They back track, retracing their steps which must have felt like God was adding insult to prolonged injury. They end up in a desert dead end called Baal-Zephon with stone fortresses to the north of them, blazing desert to the south, to the west Egypt itself. There appeared to be no way out. Really God? We were freed for THIS? HERE? Really?
In their fear and confusion, What does Moses challenge them to do? Absolutely nothing but trust their guide. Exodus 14 v 13 ‘Don’t be afraid. Just stand where you are and watch the lord rescue you. The Egyptians that you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. You won’t have to lift a finger in your defence!’

And then, just when they are most in need of God’s reassurance, confidence and security, at the very edge of the Red Sea, God who has been leading them in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, appears to disappear. Helpful!
Exodus 14 v 19 says, ‘ Then the angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to a position behind them, and the pillar of cloud also moved around behind them. The cloud settled between the Israelite and the Egyptian camps. As night came, the pillar of cloud turned into a pillar of fire, lighting the Israelite camp. But the cloud became darkness to the Egyptians, and they couldn’t find the Israelites.’

He hasn’t abandoned them. He has not forgotten them. He has not left them at the mercy of the Egyptians. He has repositioned himself so he is exactly where he needs to be for their protection and provision. He is right behind them all the time!
What they may have thought was their undoing, was actually their lifeline.
Proverbs 3 v 5-6 encourages us to, ‘ Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him. And he will make your paths straight.’

These paths may not feel ‘straight’ in terms of ‘easy to journey’ through. We may resent them. We may ask “where are you God? I can’t see you through the fog! I can’t hear you over the constant white noise of my disappointment!”

The path God leads us down may be muddy lanes not glitzy high streets. It may be off the platform and onto the playground. It may be with people we find hard to like, never mind love.
God often diverts us entirely off our intended course to take us to that place of total trust in him. Where we are wholeheartedly, unreservedly his. He takes us to the place where we can be transformed into the person we were always intended to be. Trusting in Him for our life script and our route. Trusting his word which is ‘a lamp unto our path and a light unto our feet.’

I am still a work in progress in terms of trusting my guide and not relying on my internal sat nav. But no matter what curve balls the journey throws at me, I know that God has a reason for taking me down this path.

As Sheridan Voysey says in ‘Resurrection Year,’ “While the wilderness is a place of trial, it is also a place of provision; while a place of doubt, it is also a place of discovery; while a place of restlessness, it is also a place of change. Because the wilderness is the ground between what was and what will be – the place between slavery and freedom, between immaturity and wisdom, between God’s promise and its fulfilment, between who we were and who we are to be. In the wilderness we become people we could never have become before moving on to the next phase of our lives.
After the wilderness comes a new beginning.”

What we see as a frustrating diversion may just be His intended destination for us.

I would like to thank Esther for her well-written thought-provoking words.