When You Can't See A Way Out

Yesterday, on my 60th birthday, I wrote about focus. I talked about how the facts of our lives don't change just because we choose to look at them differently. Same facts. Different focus.

But this morning, I want to take that a little deeper because it's easy to say, "Change your focus," when the circumstances aren't crushing you. But what about when they are? What about when you're looking at losing your home because you can't make the payment, your car is about to be repossessed, you've lost your job and don't know how you're going to pay your bills, the doctor's report scares you, or a relationship is falling apart? What do you do when you genuinely cannot see a way out?

That's where King Jehoshaphat found himself in 2 Chronicles 20. He had armies coming against him from multiple directions. He wasn't imagining the problem, and he wasn't being negative. The threat was real. I think that's important because faith isn't pretending something isn't happening. Jehoshaphat didn't look at those armies and say, I'm just going to think positively. He basically said, God, I don't have what it takes to fix this. I don't know what to do. And then came the words I love: "But our eyes are on You."

That's different from simply changing your focus. That's surrendering your need to know how.

Maybe You Don't Need the Way Out Yet

I think one of the things that overwhelms us most is our desperate need to figure out the how. How am I going to pay this? How am I going to recover from this? How am I going to start over? How am I going to fix this relationship? How am I going to get through this? We keep looking for the entire path when maybe God is only asking us to take the next step.

And sometimes that next step seems ridiculously small. Make the phone call. Ask for help. Fill out the application. Go outside and take a walk. Turn off your phone and pray. Write down what you actually can control today. Encourage somebody else. Do the one thing sitting in front of you instead of trying to solve the next six months.

Small doesn't mean insignificant.

Sometimes we become so consumed with finding the big answer that we miss the small thing we can do right now. We may not be able to change the circumstances today, but we can choose what we do in the middle of them. One small step can interrupt the cycle of sitting, worrying, imagining and trying to figure out something we simply don't have the answer to yet.

And What If You're Not Sure About God?

Maybe you're reading this and thinking, Carole, that sounds wonderful, but I'm not even sure I believe all of this. Then start there. You don't have to manufacture faith you don't have. You can simply say, "God, if You're there, I need You. I don't know what to do. Help me see my next step."

Maybe keeping your eyes on God doesn't begin with tremendous faith. Maybe it begins with being willing to look beyond what you can currently see. Your circumstances may be telling you, There is no way. But there's an important difference between there is no way and I don't see a way.

You don't know what tomorrow holds. You don't know who God might send, what opportunity might open, what might change, what idea might come, or what God may already be putting into motion that you cannot see yet. When we're overwhelmed by our circumstances, it's easy to look at what we can see today and assume that's the whole story. It isn't.

Jehoshaphat didn't know the whole story either. He couldn't see how the battle would end when he prayed. He simply reached the end of what he could do and said:

"We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You."

2 Chronicles 20:12

Rewrite the Script

Maybe that's your rewrite today.

Instead of "I have to figure this out," try:

"I don't know how this is going to work out. I don't know what to do next. But I refuse to believe that what I see right now is all there is."

Then take one step. Not ten. Not the whole plan. Just the next thing you know you can do.

You don't need to see the whole road.

You just need enough light for the step you're standing on.

Start with the main idea: What does God say about that? →

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