Everything went white; I couldn’t see.

While driving on a two-lane highway, a torrential downpour of rain came out of nowhere. The only rain-cloud in the sky had to be directly above my car; the skies around me were a beautiful blue with white, puffy clouds. I wasn’t expecting the rain that day. And as it turns out I wasn’t expecting what happened next either.

I’m doing 60 mph when suddenly my windshield wipers quit working! I mean…they just stopped mid-stride!

I’ve never experienced driving in the rain without windshield wipers before. I’ve never sat around wondering how that would work out. I’ve never wanted to turn them off just to see what it would be like. Never. Ever.

But here it was happening. Everything went white; I couldn’t see. Not the road, not the oncoming traffic, not the grass or trees, not even the hood of my car. NOTHING!

The rise and fall of my chest momentarily stopped; tears commenced. Oh God…I don’t know what to do!

My knee-jerk would’ve been to just stop right there in the middle of the road. I quickly remembered, however, there were about four cars following me closely down this hill ridden highway…all of us traveling the same speed. A pile up would have been imminent.

From memory I knew that the right shoulder had a steep drop-off and not enough flat ground for me to safely pull over. And it just so happens that I’m on a stretch of road where there wasn’t a driveway for me to conveniently pull into. Great.

I’m in panic mode but trying to keep it under subjection with the hopes of living another day. Although my immediate thought was this is it; I’m going to die!

I repeated a few phrases over and over again. Jesus please help me! Oh God drive this car for me! Be my eyes Lord because I cannot see!

I slow down to about 30 mph but still was enveloped in a cloud of white rain. I looked out of my driver’s side window to see if I could at least find the yellow line.

Faintly, there it was. I would have been relieved except that I was on the verge of crossing over it! And in the exact moment I’m trying to get back over into my lane an 18-wheeler whizzes by me. I screamed, “Oh God!” and began to cry harder. I was so close to hitting it head on! … I never saw it coming.   

My ‘holding it together’ was now unraveling. In desperation I cried out again, “Jesus please help me! “

“But you, O Lord, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid!”

– Psalm 22:19 ESV

And there it was; I was approaching a paved road turning off to the left. I don’t know how I saw it because I sure couldn’t see anything else. Traveling this road hundreds of times before, I remembered it led to a church that was up for sale. I had to make a decision quickly. I needed to get off the highway pronto!

One problem…I had to cross over oncoming traffic that, once again, I couldn’t see. Through frightened tears I spoke a scripture that I never thought of using in this way. Removing the ‘for we’ and replacing it with… “I will drive by faith and not by sight.” I yanked the steering wheel, pressed the gas pedal hard, and turned into the drive of that abandoned church. (I may or may not have done it with my eyes closed.)

Hitting the brakes and coming to a stop I was overwhelmed with a flood of emotions. My mind was trying to get word to my pounding heart that I was safe now. I could hear the rush of passing traffic behind me and I was so thankful that I was no longer a part of it!

As I sat there waiting for the rain to stop, the sudden turn of events was playing in my mind on repeat mode. I couldn’t believe what just happened. And I couldn’t have been more thankful that God delivered me from that nightmare!

Then I began to think about that scripture I had just recited in my own way.

“(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)”

– 2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV

And I pondered it.

It was much easier to drive when I could see. My faith only showed up when I couldn’t.

I’m afraid that is when we mostly revert to faith…when we can’t see. But what if we relied on faith even when we do?

When situations and circumstances that are troublesome arise, I believe we are sometimes so busy focused on what we can see…we forget faith. We try to figure it all out using the facts. Then comes the confusion and the ‘I don’t know what to do’ driven thought process that drives us crazy.

But faith isn’t focused on the seen…rather it looks to the unseen (that’s a little bit of an oxymoron, but true nonetheless). Faith says that facts are irrelevant, trusting that God is doing something that I cannot see.

My Pastor taught me years ago that you cannot rely on the facts; they change from day to day. What may be the fact of today may no longer be the fact tomorrow. The fact that my windshield wipers were broken last week is no longer the case now. They have been fixed praise God!

But the truth? It never changes. So, when He says to walk by faith and not by sight, you can rest assured that is always what He wants you to do. You can always rely on the truth. Windshield wipers? Not so much!

Since I’ve traveled both by sight and by faith, I do my best to choose the faith path these days (spiritually speaking of course).

Walking by sight only yielded sleepless nights, a tormented mind, and an extended stay in turmoil. Faith yielded rejuvenating rest, peace that passes all understanding, and a path of order and stability.

Faith says I cannot see it right now…but I will.

God knows what He’s talking about and knows what’s best for you. The results of your faith by far outweigh the end results of following the facts. Take your eyes off of what you can see and put them on Christ. He sees what we cannot. Put your faith in that!!

However, it is always best to see while driving!

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Hebrews 11:1 KJV