I can’t hit the broadside of a barn, and that’s not much of an exaggeration. As a child, I spent hours trying to get the ball through the net instead of just tapping the backboard. I had little success, but I really did not know why it was so difficult for me.

In fifth grade, Mrs. McCarter was one of my beloved teachers. However, she unintentionally mortified me the day she called on me to read the words projected onto the screen from the film strip. Growing up, I struggled with reading, but that day’s issue was not caused by the words themselves. I began stumbling to read, attempting to have some dignity. However, Mrs. McCarter stopped me dead in my tracks! “Karla, can you see the words?” She questioned me loudly—because I think she was shocked. I was sitting in the front row! I had no idea that the letters were blurry to me because I never realized others could see differently than I did.

Poor Vision Clouds our Thoughts

Isn’t that the way we are in life at times? Successfully navigating through our day to day is not always an easy task. We think we can see with 20/20 vision when making decisions in how we act and how we react. However, many times our poor vision clouds our thoughts. Decision-making doesn’t rank up there among my favorite things to do. Often, I find myself walking forward without guidance, or taking the time to process and clearly view what is ahead.  

Some routes are crowded with many people making the decision to move in the direction that appears obvious. However, how can I know the amount of brush and briars that lay ahead if I have judged my course by its popularity? Yet, often I choose this avenue finding myself tangled within its snares. Trapped, I am left wishing I had taken the time to look for pitfalls before my journey began.

I Need Guidance

Some of life’s situations leave me at a standstill gazing up at the scarecrow. Unlike Oz with only two trails, that lead to a great destination, my options seem too many to choose from. I want that straw man to point out the perfect path for my travels. I want it to be that simple—just walk forward until the road forks—have the brainless bag of fluff show me where to merge. Plenty of times, I have done just that! My vision was blurred and I allowed others, who show no proof of triumph skills, to influence my wanderings. Then I did not watch where I was going and proceeded until I strayed, from the desired path God had for my life.

I think the best guidance is found in Matthew 7:14 (ESV): “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Where is the way to this gate?

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” John 14:6

The narrow path is not always easy and far less popular. Though there is no road on this earth that is totally free of brambles, I have learned the narrow path gives us more peace because it is where God wants us to be.

It’s an E!

Mom practically drug me to the eye doctor, and Mrs. McCarter was right! The optometrist presented another filmstrip that I couldn’t read. He kept scrolling and scrolling the crank producing larger and larger letters for me to see. Mom sat in the parent chair totally stunned. When no other film could be fed through the machine, I sheepishly shared, “Well, it’s an E, but only because I know the E is the largest letter on an eye chart.”

For the first eleven years of my life I walked around in a distorted and blurred world while hindrances were piled in my paths. Glasses became my lifesaver! Likewise, God’s Holy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. (Psalm 119:105)

For without God’s guidance we are blind, but in reading His word and following His ways, we now can see!