Fog. It’s inevitable and unavoidable. The only way to avoid traveling through fog is to suspend your journey, but sometimes you really have no choice. You just have to go through it. Right? In order to get to our home town we have to drive over a mountain. Sometimes simply following the road up will lead you right into fog. There’s nothing you can do about it. There is no other way to go, no way to avoid the mountain, no way to avoid the fog. One of our mountain roads is curvy and lined with woods. Even on clear days nighttime driving over that mountain can be eerie, but in the fog any familiar landmarks are completely obscured. I can’t tell where I am and am unsure that I am headed in the right direction.  Our other mountain road is highway up and down a steep incline. In clear weather you can see for miles, but in fog, nothing. It doesn’t even seem like the same road. All I can do is trust what I know and keep going until the fog lifts or until road signs confirm that I have arrived at my destination.

Dear friend, your life may seem a bit foggy right now. Like fog on the road, disillusion and disappointment may be clouding your vision. Things haven’t worked out the way you planned or the way you expected. People you love have hurt you with their words, attitudes and choices. The landmark events you were looking toward are no longer visible. How do you keep going? How do you recalibrate your life to keep moving forward through this fog? How do you know what to do next?

When you can’t see what’s ahead it can help to know where you are going. Do you? Years ago our pastor challenged each member of our congregation to write a purpose statement. He encouraged us to take some time with God and write out what we believed God had created us to accomplish. We were encouraged to create the statement through a prayerful evaluation of our strengths and weaknesses, and also a recognition of our personality and passions. it would take time to draft and might be adjusted at a future date, but the statement would capture the core of why we believed God put each one of us on this earth. It was exciting to begin the journey of self-discovery and over time I created a statement that I think still captures the essence of what I believe God created me for. Yes, there have been some slight adjustments over the years, but the overarching purpose remains the same.

A purpose statement is simply an expression of what you believe God created you for. It is general rather than specific.It is more about mission than tasks. Specific tasks may be a part of the mission, but they are not your purpose. God didn’t create you to hold a specific job or place of ministry or even to marry a specific person or raise a specific child. Those things are part of accomplishing your purpose, but they are not your purpose. Jesus declared His mission: “To seek and save the lost.”(Luke 19:10) That mission included going to the cross, but it also included raising up future leaders in the apostles, it included healing many and teaching those who would listen. The tasks were not the mission. The tasks accomplished the mission. It is the same with you. What you do is not your purpose. Your mission is your purpose. What is your mission? 

When you know your purpose even times of uncertainty can be anchored in stability. This has been my experience. When the path became foggy and I was unsure of what to do next, my purpose statement helped me stay focused on accomplishing the mission. A place of ministry may have fallen through. Relationships may have been strained. At one point, the future I had expected was obliterated by someone else’s choice. Yet, I knew what I needed to accomplish. My mission statement: To nurture, equip, encourage and inspire others to live for God’s glory. That became like a flashlight to point to my next step, guiding me through the darkest times. A flashlight only shows you where to put your foot next. You can’t see all the way down the road, but you can know that the ground right in front of you is safe. Crafting a purpose statement can be a lighthouse in the fog. Even when you can’t see the route, the lighthouse lets you know that you are heading in the right direction and that can bring some security to insecure times.

When you don’t know what to do, know where to go.  Friend, you may find yourself in the middle of fog right now. All your specifics have fallen away. What you expected has not come to pass and you wonder what to do now. Believe me, I have been there many times, even very recently. It’s in those moments that you need an anchor. You need to know that you have a purpose. You need to have a sense of mission. Let your purpose statement lead you through the fog of disillusionment and disappointment. You may not be able to see the next bend on the foggy road, but you will have a light for your next step. That’s all you really need. Keep going!!

Key Thought: When you don’t know what to do, know where to go.

A Scripture to consider: “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” ‭‭Psalm‬ ‭139:16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

A YES challenge:Take some time to prayerfully craft a purpose statement. You may need to work on it over a period of time. Write it on an index card and keep it in your Bible or journal. Pray over it regularly to keep you heading in the right direction.

Prayer: Lord, there is a lot going on in my life right now that I just don’t understand. Sometimes it is hard to know what to do. You know the purpose You created me for, my mission. Help me to understand that purpose and to let that purpose guide me through the fog of confusion. Amen.