Driving in the fog

Early one Saturday morning, several years ago, I was driving on an unfamiliar hilly road under the light of a full moon. I knew my destination and I had a road map to show me which roads to take. As the temperature dropped, fog began to develop in the low lying areas. on top of the hills the road could be clearly seen. there were road signs, stripes marking the edges, the center line and the no passing zones. The fog in the low lying areas was beautiful as the light of the full moon reflected off of the top of it. As I drove into the low lying ares, fog obscured my way. It was not nearly as beautiful as it seemed from the outside. Looking up, the sky was clear, the full moon was beautiful as it shone, not with it's own light, but with the light that it reflected from the sun. I strained my eyes to see the road. Everything that once marked the way so clearly was still there, but the fog made it hard to see. When the high beams were on, instead of lighting the way, they reflected off of the fog, making it even harder to see the road. Dimming the headlights made it easier to see the road right in front of me, but I could see only a short distance. Turning on the fog lamps helped a little, but still the way was not really clear. The only solution was to proceed very slowly, trying to stay out of danger. Each time I drove out of a low lying area and out of the fog, the way was clear for a little while until I drove back into the fog, repeating the whole process. As the dawn began to break, the temperature dropped, more fog developed, making the way even more dangerous. The headlights seemed help less and I slowed to a crawl. all of a sudden, just when it seemed that I could not go on, the sun burned away the fog and the road was clear.

As I was driving, I believe the Lord showed me that this is an example of how we go through life. The way is often unfamiliar, but we know the destination and the Bible is our road map of how to get there. The way is clearly marked out if we will but follow the signs and markings. There are mountains and valleys that we must go through. Sometimes when we are on a high place, we can look down into the valley, and there is something there that looks very beautiful from the outside, but then sin usually looks attractive, and it can give pleasure for awhile, but very quickly it obscures the way. All of the signs are still there, but our spiritual eyes are dimmed by sin. If we look up the the Lord, even while in the muck and mire of sin, He is still there reaching out to us, shining in the darkness. Trying to do things on our own, is like turning on the headlights. it may help a little, but the way is still not clear. we may come out of the fog of sin for a time if we work real hard and try to do what is right, but if we are doing it with our own strength, back down the hill and into the fog we go again. Then comes a time when we realize that we cannot break out of the fog no matter what we do. The fog just gets thicker and thicker, making life harder and harder. Finally the day comes when we realize that we cannot go on, we invite Jesus into our lives and the Holy Spirit to baptize us with his power. Just like the sun burns away the fog, making the road clear. the Holy Spirit will burn away the spiritual fog that surrounds us when we try to live on our own power.

God has a plan for you!

I have been feeling like God is prompting me to share this story with friends and family. I think is is especially for the descendants of my parents, Lloyd and Sarah Litwiller, but everyone can be encourage by this story. I may not have all the details correct and if my mom, brothers or sister remember it differently, please let me know.

We lived in an old house on a farm a couple miles west of Delavan, Illinois. I think it was the summer of 1963 we started tearing the old house down, and building a new house. We lived in part of the old house until the new basement was done and moved into the basement where we lived until the summer of 1965.

During supper one evening as will often happen with seven kids, something was spilled and one of my brothers got the mop and cleaned it up. The brooms and mops were stored against the wall behind the furnace. The furnace flue came out the back and went up and out. There was an opening in the bottom of the elbow. When he put the mop away, my brother tried to stand it up against the wall and it kept falling over so he just shoved the head of the mop in the hole in the bottom of the flue pipe so it wouldn't fall over. He was less than 5 years old at the time and of course couldn't know about the danger of carbon monoxide. I have no way of knowing, but it was probably early enough in the fall that the furnace didn't run until during the night.

We all went to bed with no thought of what was about to happen. Dad woke up during the night with a terrible headache, and realized that he smelled fumes from the furnace. I remember Dad coming into our room, waking us up and telling us to get out of the house, and having a bad headache for a couple of days. He told us later that our sister had stopped breathing and he worked with her and got her started breathing again.

Many times I have wondered how much longer it would have taken for the whole family to have been killed by the carbon monoxide gas. I believe the God woke Dad up and made him realize what was going on so our lives would be spared. I can't answer the question of why sometimes tragedies happen and sometimes they don't, but I can testify to the fact that God saved our family for a special purpose. Dad is no longer here on this earth with us, but Mom is and the 7 siblings, their spouses, 24 grandchildren, 5 spouses of grandchildren, 5 great grandchildren and one on the way.

The point of my sharing this is to remind all of us that God has a purpose for your life. Know that He loves you and cares about every detail of your life.